Incredible Vegan Lemon Cake

You'll go crazy for this vegan lemon cake! It’s made with the entire lemon and has that perfect sweet-yet-tart zingy flavor. With a melt-in-your mouth texture and tender crumb, it’s a guaranteed crowd pleaser for every special occasion.

It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited about a dessert, but once you try this phenomenal Vegan Lemon Cake, you’ll get it. It’s got that sweet-yet-tart zing you love in a good lemon dessert and it’s bursting with so much lemony flavor because this cake uses the entire lemon! 

A mixture of aquafaba and vegan sour cream lends the most tender, moist crumb and a melt-in-your-mouth texture that is so good you might cry. It’s topped with a tart, not-too-sweet lemon cream cheese icing that is outrageously delicious.  

It’s possibly the best cake I’ve ever made, and it is THE perfect cake to welcome spring, to celebrate birthdays, Mother’s Day, or anytime you’re in the mood for a special dessert. 

Made for lemon lovers.

The most disappointing thing about many lemon desserts is the mild lemon flavor, and many lemon cakes ditch lemon juice altogether and use lemon extract, but I wanted to bring the zingy flavor of real lemons to the table for this recipe. 

The problem is that adding a lot of lemon juice can screw up the texture of cakes, especially vegan cakes. In our first few tests, we added ¾ cup lemon juice. The flavor was amazing, but the texture was gummy and dense. 

This is because too much acid interrupts the development of gluten and can cause the cake to rise and then fall. Yet when we used less lemon juice, we could barely taste the lemon flavor. 

Solution: Use other parts of the lemon! Lots of lemon zest gets rubbed into the sugar to release its essential oils. Minced pieces of whole lemon and just enough lemon juice is also added for that zippy tartness. 

We use everything but the bitter white pith from the lemons. In reducing our food waste, we also cracked the code for the most amazing lemon flavor without compromising on texture. 

The frosting brings even more lemon flavor to the mix. It’s tangy from cream cheese, tart and zingy from lemon zest and juice, not too sweet, and wildly good! 

Melt-in-your mouth texture.

Thanks to lightly whipped aquafaba and vegan sour cream, the cake boasts a light and fluffy texture that literally melts in your mouth. It’s so soft and moist that it makes you close your eyes. Yes, it’s that kind of cake.

Gourmet but approachable. 

This cake is easy to make and features basic ingredients like lemons, flour, sugar, and vanilla, but it’s so gourmet your guests will think it came from a fancy bakery. Plus, it freezes fantastically so no leftovers will go to waste!