recipe: *vegan* lemon raspberry cake

this is for you vegan friends!

vegan lemon raspberry cake

This is my very first intentionally vegan recipe! It’s a moist single-layer lemon cake with a silky raspberry swiss buttercream. Yes, I said vegan swiss buttercream - we’re making it using aquafaba. Now, you may not know this about me, but I have a set of very serious and very annoying food allergies. Including to chickpeas (which aquafaba is typically made out of). So I always thought it was just off the table for me. But, it turns out you can make it with the liquid from other types of canned beans too. So for this recipe I used cannellini <3. Note: you don’t have to be vegan to enjoy this cake!

(the cake, not me)

for the lemon cake

1 cup (200g) granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest 

1-½ cups (195g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1-½ teaspoons vanilla extract

for the raspberry swiss buttercream

½ cup aquafaba (the liquid from ~1 can of cannellini beans or chickpeas)

1-¼ cups (150g) granulated sugar

8 oz unsalted vegan butter (I recommend Miyoko’s)

2 tablespoons raspberry preserves

1 teaspoon vanilla extract