Cake ingredients
480g plain flour
280g caster sugar
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
480g soya yogurt
180ml sunflower oil
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
Lemon curd ingredients
115ml soya milk
1 tbsp cornflour
100g caster sugar
4 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Grated zest of one lemon
Small pinch of turmeric for colour
Method
Mix 1 tablespoon of soya milk with the cornflour to make a paste. Put the sugar, remaining soya milk, lemon zest and juice in a pan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Add the cornflour paste and turmeric and continue to cook, stirring continuously and increasing the heat slightly, until it thickens. Remove from the heat and allow to cool before using.
To make the cake, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Sieve the flour into a large bowl, add the sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix well. Make a well in the middle. Put the yogurt into a bowl with the sunflower oil, golden syrup and vanilla extract. Mix with a spoon until fully combined then add to the dry ingredients with the lemon zest. Fold through with a spatula or wooden spoon until just combined - be careful not to over-mix.
Spoon the mixture equally between two greased and lined 8 inch tins for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Buttercream icing ingredients (the measurements below will make a lot of icing but any excess can be used to crumb coat another cake or can be frozen)
500g vegan butter, cubed and softened (I use Flora’s unsalted plant based block)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1kg icing sugar
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Method
Place the vegan butter into a bowl with the vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and a few large spoonfuls of icing sugar. Whisk with a handheld blender until combined, then whisk in the remaining icing sugar in manageable batches until smooth and spreadable.
To assemble and decorate the cake, level both sponges if necessary. Sandwich the sponges together with buttercream icing and some of the lemon curd. Then crumb coat the cake and chill for 15 minutes before applying another layer of buttercream. Decorate as desired.