Lemons! The world is a brighter place with lemons!

The cake was inspired by my friend who had invited me round round for a girlie evening complete with food and cake. She informed me that she planned on making a polenta cake but that because it contained eggs in the recipe, it wouldn’t be vegan. Oooo, so that got me thinking and  a plan formed…could pull off a successful healthy vegan lemon polenta cake to take to the party?

So I did just that.

It tasted pretty good actually, a slightly different texture to the regular version due to the omission of eggs, but polenta cake is a heavy cake anyway by its nature so that was fine by me.  I also made a lemon drizzle which really makes the flavours pop. The drizzle uses unrefined sugars but still I couldn’t claim it to be ‘healthy’…the cake still tasted good without the dressing so it's up to you!

This cake was also the first attempt at baking with my bundt tin that I bought a few months back but simply hadn’t got round to using. It looks so pretty here. You could by all means opt for a loaf tin instead.

Recipe: Lemon polenta cake

Approx. 1 medium loaf or bundt tin

Ingredients

1/3 cup coconut oil- melted (150g)

¼ cup apple puree (50g)

½ cup coconut sugar (100g) plus ¼ tsp stevia

4 lemons plus 1 tbs zest

½ tsp almond extract

1tbs chia and ¼ cup water

¾ cup polenta (110g)

1/3 cup buckwheat (50g)

1/3 cup ground almonds (50g)

3tbs tapioca flour (10g)

Pinch salt

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1/3 cup soy milk

Lemon drizzle:

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ cup soy yoghurt

¼ cup coconut sugar

Method

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix wet in a separate bowl and then add to the dry.

Spoon into a greased and lined loaf tin or bundt tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for approx. 40 mins until lightly golden.

For the lemon drizzle, stir the ingredients together in a small pan over the stove on low to medium heat. Once the coconut sugar has dissolved, whisk the mixture and bring to a simmer for a couple of minutes before removing from the heat. Set aside to drizzle over the cake.

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.