Rhian's Recipes

Easy, undetectably vegan + gluten-free recipes!

Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

by 51 Comments

Pin280
Share24
Tweet
Stumble
304 Shares
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

This Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake is easy to make, elegantly simple and incredibly delicious.

Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

I’ve posted a fair few gluten-free + vegan sponge cakes on my blog now, examples being:

And whilst I love them all, I decided that it was perhaps time to post something a little simpler, like a good old lemon drizzle cake.

MY LATEST VIDEOS

Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

This Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake is just as moist and fluffy as its conventional counterpart (thank you ground almonds!), perfectly sweet and seriously moreish.

It’s super easy to make, coming together in just one bowl and using ingredients you’re likely to already have on hand right now. And not only is it undetectably vegan and gluten-free, it’s also refined sugar free.

Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

As delicious as the sponge is, the main highlight (as with any other Lemon Drizzle Cake situation) is the drizzle! I used a simple 2-ingredient mixture of lemon juice and maple syrup, which works really well to lock in the moisture, and works to add extra sweetness and citrus aroma.

Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

The trick to getting the full potential out of the drizzle is to pour it over the cake as soon as it’s out of the oven. The heat will help the sponge soak up all the flavour and keeps it extra moist. It may seem like a lot of liquid at the time, but it will all be absorbed into the sponge.

I found that this cake tastes best eaten on the day it was made – just be sure to wait for it to cool completely before cutting, though! Leftovers tasted best reheated in a dry frying pan or the microwave.

Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.

Helpful tools to make this Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake:

4.92 from 12 votes
Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake
Print
Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
45 mins
 

This Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake is easy to make, elegantly simple and incredibly delicious. 

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, British
Keyword: gluten-free lemon drizzle cake, vegan lemon cake, vegan lemon drizzle cake
Servings: 8
Calories: 360 kcal
Ingredients
For the cake:
For the syrup:
Instructions
For the cake:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)

  2. Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil)

  3. Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, lemon zest, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds
  4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda
  5. Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry
  6. Transfer mixture into a greased baking tin lined with baking paper (I used a 7inch/18cm springform baking tin)
  7. Bake in oven for around 30 minutes until risen and golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean
For the syrup:
  1. Whilst the cake it baking, mix together the lemon juice and maple syrup
  2. Drizzle it over the cake as soon as it's out of the oven - it will soak into the cake better when it's hot

  3. Be sure to wait for the cake to cool completely before cutting

  4. This cake tasted best eaten on the day it was made, and leftovers taste best reheated in a dry frying pan or the microwave

Recipe Notes

*You can attentively use 

Nutrition Facts
Gluten-Free Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake
Amount Per Serving
Calories 360
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of the products, a small percentage will come to me, with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.

Pin280
Share24
Tweet
Stumble
304 Shares

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Hi Emily, thank you! I think using oat flour or ground pumpkin seeds in place of the ground almonds could work, but I haven’t tested either of these so can’t guarantee results unfortunately…please let me know if you try anything out! Thank you

  3. Thank you! I tried this cake with coconut milk and it didn’t work – the cake was brown and crumbly on the outside but gooey on the inside and bottom, even though I extended the cooking time. If I try it again, I will definitely try almond milk instead.

    Reply

    • Ah thank you for sharing! So sorry to hear it didn’t work out! Did you use coconut milk from a carton or the thick, creamy stuff from a tin? If it was the coconut milk from a carton it should work. Perhaps there was another problem? Happy to help you troubleshoot 🙂

  4. Hm, it was from a carton, but it was pretty creamy. I guess it was not the right kind. I’m new to dairy-free baking so I’m really not familiar with all of these ingredients. I’ll try almond milk next time.

    Reply

  5. Great recipe! Someone mentioned a nut allergy – I tried with this with pumpkin seeds as recommended (I didn’t have almonds in the cupboard) and it worked really well

    Reply

  6. Anyone tried it with an alternative flour – e.g. coconut flour? ( maybe mixed with tapioca starch)
    I’d prefer to do it completely grain free

    Reply

  8. Just cooked this for our staff morning tea to cater for various dietary requirements. I was nervous as my previous gluten-free cooking attempts have been horrible. I am pleased to report this recipe was delicious, and everyone was very complementary. I used rice bran oil, maple syrup, almond milk, ground almond-meal and corn flour. Next time I will add in more lemon zest to give it a bit more lemony zing.

    Reply

  9. Made this for my daughters birthday today and followed the recipe exactly, it turned out wet, heavy and barely lemony. It was really expensive to make and was just terrible. Everyone said it was ok but nobody finished more than a one bite.

    Reply

    • Hi Sally, I’m so sorry to hear that and understand it must’ve been so annoying. May I ask what types of flour were in your gluten-free flour blend? Thank you for your feedback.

    • This was by far the best vegan and gluten-free cake recipe I have ever used. It was truly undistinguishable from standard baking. We taste tested the mixture throughout and added 1/2 an extra lemon in the end which was common sense as lemons vary in their strength/flavour/size/variety. My housemates devoured the cake in minutes! I now need to make another tomorrow! And it was CHHEEAAPP.

  10. I made this cake for my daughter’s birthday. I made a double batch and two layers – one 9-inch and one 8-inch round. I added a vegan lemon buttercream frosting and made a beautiful mandala circular design of cut strawberries, blueberries and raspberries on each layer. Absolutely delicious and gorgeous! Thank you so much for a great recipe!

    Reply

  12. This is the best vegan and gluten-free cake any of my flatmates and I have ever tasted! We had some mixture left over and it made great cupcakes too! They took 20mins in the oven and were just as delicious as the cake. We also added 1/2 teaspoon of Xanthan gum to the recipe which generally helps with gluten-free baking and the result was fantastic! Thankyou!

    Reply

    • Hi Alex, thank you so much for sharing, so glad you liked it! Cupcakes sound like a good idea too 🙂 and I’m sure other readers will find the comment about xanthan gum helpful! Thanks!

  17. Oooo just made this cake for my sons birthday tomorrow hope I can wait till then before testing it!?
    Think I will decorate with some vegan butter icing .
    Fingers crossed😬
    Suzi

    Reply

  20. This is the most delicious lemon drizzle i have EVER made! I served it to non vegans and they were shocked and asked for the recipe. So moist and soft and absolutely delicious. Thanks Rhian!

    Reply

  22. Hello! Just trying this recipe today for my dad. It’s actually in the oven right now. But I’m not sure it’s gonna work, the texture of the mixture came out super dry, I did try to add more milk, but since I don’t exactly know how it’s supposed to be, I don’t know if it was enough. Can anyone tell me how’s supposed to look before putting it in the oven? Thank you!

    Reply

    • Hi, thank you so much for sharing! I’m not sure why the mixture came out so dry, it is supposed to be quite liquidy – more so than a normal cake. What type of gluten-free flour did you use? So sorry you’ve had a problem with it and hope we can sort it out!

    • I used whole wheat flour. Is that the reason? Do you have an idea to make it better? I still have the same ingredients on hand and would like to try again tonight.

    • Ok, so the idea is to make a cake with no white flour (that’s the reason I used whole wheat) and sugar-free. Not necessarily needs to be vegan. And I can’t find a recipe like it. Sorry to have so many questions, I’m new to this kind of cooking, but I really want to bake something for my dad. Thanks again!

  23. i made this on the weekend and it turned out really well i actually used half oat flour,seed flours and it worked really well. thankyou so much for this recipe

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Pin280
Share24
Tweet
Stumble
304 Shares