These are delicate fluffy little cakes and the perfect size if you want a treat without overindulging. They also make such a pretty addition to an afternoon tea table. Using aqua faba creates the very light and fluffy texture. How much lemon you like is a matter of personal taste but I have made these a few times now and I always ask for opinions when I am working on a new recipe, and everyone has liked the lemony level.
- CAKES
- 345g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp bi carb
- 265g white sugar
- 1 & ½ cups almond milk
- 150ml vegetable oil
- 2 Flax eggs (30g of ground golden flax mixed with ⅓ cup water)
- 125ml lemon juice (add to almond milk to curdle about 20 minutes prior to use)
- 100ml aqua faba from chickpeas
- Finely grated Lemon peel from 1 large lemon
- Yellow food colouring
- ICING – ERMINE FROSTING
- 400g castor sugar
- 90g plain flour
- 450ml almond milk
- 450g vegan margarine
- 1 tsp vanilla
- CAKES
- Add dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl (except flax)
- Add lemon juice to almond milk
- Whip aqua faba until stiff peaks form (you can add a tsp of sugar to assist this process)
- Add almond milk, vegetable oil and a few drops of yellow food colouring to dry ingredients and mix until just combined
- Add water to ground flax seeds and as soon as it starts to thicken, add to cake batter and mix until combined
- Fold in the whipped aqua faba until combined
- Add to cupcake wrappers. An ice-cream scoop gives the perfect amount. If you are using the cardboard wrappers that you will see in all of my cupcake posts, the cake will only fill about half of the cup.
- Cook for 20 minutes. Use a cake tester to check if cooked and if required, cook for another minute until cake tester comes out clean
- Transfer to a rack to cool. Once completely cooled, carefully remove the cupcake wrappers. They are ready to ice.
- ICING – ERMINE FROSTING
- Add flour and sugar to a medium saucepan and place over medium to high heat
- Gradually add milk and stir continuously until the mix is a pudding like consistency
- Transfer container and cover with cling wrap – press the wrap onto the pudding mix to make sure that a skin doesn’t form. Cover container with lid and place in fridge until cooled. I will often do this the night before I need it
- Once cooled, beat vegan margarine until smooth
- Gradually add pudding while mixing. Don’t add too much at once or it might split thew icing. If it does split, you can get it back, but it needs to be whipped for a long time. Add vanilla and mix until combined
- Ice using your favourite piping nozzle. The brand of piping nozzle I used was Loyal and the size is 011mm
- Sprinkle with some grated lemon rind
BAKING TIPS
Flax Meal
My preference is for Golden flax meal. I feel like it works better in the cake batter but that could be my imagination. It definitely looks better in a light coloured cake because the brown flax meal can leave flecks of brown which you can see.
I usually have to buy Golden Flax seeds online and I ground them myself in my coffee grinder. It takes a few seconds in an electric coffee grinder and the meal is nice and fine. I keep the ground falx in a sealed comtainer in the fridge.
Cupcake Wrappers
I also prefer to use the more upright cupcake wrappers in a thin cardboard rather than the traditional wrappers. The reason is that the traditional wrappers can be very fickle about peeling back from the cooked cake. If you undercook slightly then do it. If you keep them in a sealed plastic container, they do it. It doesn’t always happen but with the wrappers than I now use, it never happens and that make me happy! The other great advantage of these wrappers is that you don’t have to use a special pan. Then just sit on a flat tray and won’t lose their shape.
Ice-Cream Scoop
This is the best and fastest way to get the perfect amount of cake batter in each cupcake wrapper. You need the old-style scoop with the release handle. Makes baking so much faster.
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