This lightly sweetened cake is perfectly tender, very moist, and bursting with lemon flavor. It’s also free of dairy and eggs, with a gluten free and refined sugar free option.

Whenever we’re traveling, especially on long road trips, I usually scour the side of the road for that familiar green sign. You know, the one that ensures caffeine, snacks, and decent restrooms. My hubby grabs the strongest espresso drink available and I typically go for a tea or an almond milk latte. But, if we’re keeping it real, Starbucks can keep their drink. I really just want a slice of that lemon loaf, please and thank you. Lemon cake is my weakness and I’m not ashamed to admit it. 

It reminds me of a cake my grandma used to make for the family. It was from a box, but somehow grandma made it taste amazing. She’d add pudding mix and a few other things, throw it into a bundt pan, and then drizzle her homemade glaze over the baked cake. It was fluffy, moist, lemony perfection, which was only made better alongside a tall glass of milk.  

I’ve been wanting to recreate grandma’s bundt cake for a while, and after several failed attempts, I finally came up with my version of the perfect lemon cake. It’s moist, tender, lightly sweetened, and bursting with lemon flavor. It also just happens to be vegan too, but you’d never know it.

Vegan desserts often have a bad rap because people expect them to taste weird or gross, and honestly, that’s probably because some of them are! 🙊 But this cake doesn’t use unexpected ingredients, like cauliflower or beans, it’s vegan friendly because:

• It uses oil instead of butter, which makes it more moist.
• It doesn’t use eggs, because I think cakes are much more tender/less chewy without them.
• Uses dairy-free yogurt, milk, and cream cheese, but only because I’m lactose intolerant. Feel free to use the dairy version, if you’d like.

And that’s it. The rest of the ingredients are “normal”! 😉 

I also added a gluten-free and refined sugar free option if you’re interested! I hope you give this a try and enjoy it as much as we do! 🤗

Lemon Yogurt Bundt Cake

 

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Cook time

45 mins

Total time

45 mins

 

This lightly sweetened cake is perfectly tender, very moist, and bursting with lemon flavor. It's also free of dairy and eggs, with a gluten free and refined sugar free option.

Author: Joscelyn Abreu

Recipe type: Cake, Dessert, Vegan

Serves: 10–12 servings

Ingredients

Lemon Yogurt Bundt Cake: (GF recipe below)

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1¼ cup pure cane sugar or coconut sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened plain or vanilla yogurt (I used non-dairy coconut yogurt)
• ¾ cup milk of choice (I use almond milk)
• zest and juice of 3-4 medium lemons (about 3 tablespoons finely grated zest and ½ cup juice)
• ½ cup oil of choice (I use avocado or vegetable oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Gluten-Free Lemon Yogurt Bundt Cake:

• 2 cups gluten-free flour blend (I used King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Measure for Measure Flour)
• 1 cup super-fine blanched almond flour
• 1 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1¼ cup pure cane sugar or coconut sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened plain or vanilla yogurt (I used non-dairy coconut yogurt)
• zest and juice of 3-4 medium lemons (about 3 tablespoons finely grated zest and ½ cup juice)
• ½ cup milk of choice (I used almond milk)
• ¼ cup oil of choice (I use avocado or vegetable oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or lemon extract for more lemon flavor)

Lemon Glaze: (naturally sweetened option below)

• 1½ cups powdered sugar
• 2–3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, optional

Naturally Sweetened Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze:

• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened (can use dairy-free)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup, use more or less to taste
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, use more or less to taste (optional)
• 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Generously grease a 12 cup bundt pan and set aside. I used the Elegant Party Bundt Pan by Nordic Ware.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients—flour(s), baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Gradually mix in the yogurt, milk, lemon juice/zest, oil, and extract, beating just until batter is smooth.
3. Pour batter into the pan and place in the preheated oven on the middle rack. Bake for 40–55 minutes, or just until the center of the cake is set and a toothpick inserted comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
4. Let cake cool in the pan 20–30 minutes before inverting. If cake doesn't come out easily, hold pan vertically on its side and pat all around the outside of the pan with the palm of your hand. Invert onto a serving plate and let cool thoroughly before glazing.
5. Drizzle cooled cake with glaze and serve.
6. To make the powdered sugar glaze, combine powdered sugar with 1½ tablespoons lemon juice, stirring until smooth. Add additional lemon juice only if needed. Glaze should be thick and barely pourable.
7. To make cream cheese glaze, mix together softened cream cheese, maple syrup, lemon zest and enough lemon juice to make the glaze pourable.

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