Vegan blackberry cake – Lazy Cat Kitchen

Is it me or autumn has crept up on us? It’s probably me as I have been on holidays for the last couple of weeks. The return to reality was painful but baking an autumn inspired vegan blackberry cake has eased the pain and I have no regrets.

This vegan blackberry cake is moist, fruity and nutty and absolutely prefect with your favourite hot beverage, enjoyed, ideally, in the warmth of September sunrays that I have been so grateful for this past week.

This simple, one bowl vegan blackberry cake is inspired by season’s produce: juicy and tangy blackberries and hazelnuts, both of which are autumn babies and because Mother Nature is endlessly clever go really well with each other too. It’s easy to make and a lovely weekend treat so I hope you’ll give it a try!

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

VEGAN YOGHURT – vegan yoghurt keeps this cake moist and minimises the need for added fat. In fact, you could make it completely oil-free by replacing oil with extra yoghurt. I recommend using thick (rather than pourable) yoghurt here for best results. I used vanilla yoghurt by The Coconut Collaborative.

OIL – a small amount of neutral oil (grapeseed, sunflower, mild olive oil) helps to keep this cake beautifully moist, but you can make this cake OIL-FREE by replacing the oil with extra yoghurt.

SUGAR – I used caster (superfine) sugar in combination with light muscovado sugar.

BLACKBERRIES – I used fresh blackberries, which once submerged into the cake batter and baked produce fruity pops of flavour throughout the cake.

PLANT MILK – any plant milk will work well here although I like using soy milk in baked goods.

LEMON – lemon juice helps this cake rise as it comes into a reaction with baking soda so don’t skip it although you could use lime juice instead. As for the zest, it’s optional, but I like its fragrance against white chocolate.

FLOUR – I used white all purpose flour here, but if you want to make this cake gluten-free, use a well balanced gluten-free flour mix. One that contains plenty of starch and ideally some xanthan gum too.

HAZELNUTS – This vegan blackberry cake was inspired by autumn produce: blackberries and hazelnuts so I used blanched hazelnuts, which I ground finely in my food processor and used it to replace flour. If you would rather cut down your work, you could also use ground almonds, which are accessible in baking aisles of well stocked supermarkets.

This vegan blackberry cake is a simple, single bowl cake that is perfectly achievable for a beginner. Start off by combining all the wet ingredients (that includes sugar and lemon zest) in a large mixing bowl. Once combined add finely ground hazelnuts (you can also use shop-bought ground almonds if you prefer) and then flour and baking agents in two to three batches. Finally, fold in blackberries gently and you are ready to bake.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Once you take the cake out of the oven, be sure to allow it to cool off completely before applying icing.

To make the icing, combine 50 g (a third of a cup) of icing sugar with approximately 3 tsp of liquid. You can use 100% blackberry juice (squeeze a few raspberries through a small sieve to separate juice from the flesh) but the icing will be purple, which I personally find less appetising so to make this colour I combined half lemon juice and half blackberry juice.

Drizzle the icing over a cold cake and sprinkle with roughly chopped hazelnuts (or almonds if you used almonds in the batter). I also topped it with a few extra blackberries for looks.