I really love it when cooking inspiration hits me when I’m reading someone else’s recipes, and often it’s even more inspirational when they’re not vegan – there’s more of a challenge in making the non-vegan things my own. The making of this cake was inspired by a post on the New York Times blog Bitten by Mark Bittman. My recipe came out quite differently from his – first of all, my cake is not pan-fried but quite traditionally baked; secondly, no eggs for me; and thirdly, I decided to use lime instead of the lemon zest. A very nice cake came out of the oven: heavy crumb from the almond flour was brightened by the lime flavor, with tasty browned edges and a little bit of crunch from the topping of sugary slivered almonds.
We enjoyed this cake with a store-bought vegan whipped topping, but I am sure that vanilla ice cream would be just as good. I tend to choose full-fat whipped toppings on the rare occasion when I buy commercial ones – they’re not quite as artificial-tasting as the lighter versions. My favorite right now is GoGreen Vispi, an oat-based product that is available at least in Finland and Sweden.
The Wet:
- 2 dl plain soy yoghurt
- 1 large lime, juiced and zested (1/2 dl juice, 1 tablespoon zest)
- 1/2 dl canola oil
The Dry:
- 2 dl almonds, ground into 3 dl almond meal
- 1 dl white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 dl gram (chick pea flour)
- 2 dl sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
- pinch of salt
The Topping:
- 1 dl slivered almonds
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy milk
- pinch of salt
To Serve:
- vegan whipped topping (we had GoGreen Vispi)
- 1/2 vanilla bean
The batter was as straightforwards as can be – I mixed the wet and the dry separately and then combined, stirring with a fork. I also stirred the topping ingredients gently together (I didn’t want to mash the slivers), then poured the batter in the baking pan and sprinkled with the topping. For an even coating, you might want to double the amount of topping.
Then I baked the cake for 25 minutes in 200 degrees Celsius, until the edges were nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake came out with just a few crumbs. I let the cake cool to room temperature, and served with vanilla whipped cream. For the cream, I just scraped the seeds from half a vanilla bean with the tip of a sharp knife, and added that to the commercial vegan whipping cream as I was whipping it.
