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.
- 115 g / ½ cup thick vegan yoghurt
- 30 ml / 2 tbsp neutral oil (I used grapeseed oil)*
- 175 g / ¾ cup + 2 tbsp sugar, I used caster and light muscovado
- 15 ml / 1 tbsp lemon juice + zest of 1 lemon
- 1½ tsp quality vanilla extract (optional)
- 120 ml / ½ cup plant milk
DRY INGREDIENTS
- 100 g / ¾ cup blanched hazelnuts OR 100 g / 1 cup hazelnut meal or ground almonds
- 180 g / 1½ cups all purpose white flour or GF cake flour mix*, sifted
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1¼ tsp baking powder
- 150 g / 1 heaped cup blackberries
DECORATION
- as handful of chopped hazelnuts
- 50 g / 1/3 cup icing sugar / confectioner’s sugar
- 1½ tsp lemon juice
- extra blackberries, to decorate
- Heat up the oven to 175° C (or 155° C fan forced) / 350° F (310° F fan forced). Grease a 1 kg / 2 lb cake tin (see NOTES) and line it with a wide strip of baking paper to be able to remove your cake easily.
- Grind hazelnuts very finely in a food processor, set aside.
- Stir the yoghurt, oil and sugar together with a spatula until the mixture is uniform.
- Add in the vanilla extract, plant milk, lemon zest and juice. Mix well.
- Stir in ground hazelnuts into the wet ingredients.
- Next sift in flour, salt and both baking agents over the wet ingredients, in two to three batches. Fold each batch into the wet ingredients gently with a spatula. The finished batter should be a fairly thick, but still pourable.
- Finally, fold in blackberries very gently.
- Transfer the batter into the prepared baking tin and bake for about 45-50 min, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is nicely browned – if the top is browning too quickly, tent it with a piece of kitchen foil.
- Once the cake is completely cool, make the icing by whisking in small amount of liquid (about 3 tsp) into the icing sugar. I used one and a half teaspoon of lemon juice and the same amount of blackberry juice obtained by squeezing a couple of fresh blackberries over a small sieve.
- Drizzle icing over the cake, then immediately sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts on top. Decorate with a few more blackberries if you wish. Use a serrated knife and gentle pressure to produce neat looking slices.
*OIL-FREE: make this loaf oil-free, substitute oil with 30 g / 2 tbsp more yoghurt.
*GLUTEN-FREE: to make this cake without gluten, sub regular flour with a well composed gluten-free flour mix (one that contains a dose of starches for binding). I also recommend about a tsp of xanthan gum to ensure the flour binds well.
900 g / 2 lb tins vary enormously between brands so I recommend measuring the volume of the tin you intend to use first. For this recipe, I used a tin that holds 1250 ml / 5 cups of liquid (to the brim), but the batter should fill no more than 2/3 – 3/4 of the 2lb cake tin or else the cake may not raise.