Lemony Coconut Cake

I had never made a lemon cake before and the last time I had a lemon cake probably about 3 years ago was back in my pre-vegan days!
I had nothing planned on Saturday and what else could I do but bake. I improvised with what I had on hand and made this Lemony Coconut Cake. I used lemon juice squeezed from a lemon and the taste can barely be picked out. I should probably have used commercial lemon juice from a bottle instead? (…that sounds a bit too artificial/chemical to me) But anyway, the icing helped bring out the lemony taste. It was really quite tangy with the icing!
I baked them in individual oval tartlet tins (approximately 10 x 6 cm – 4 x 2.5in).


Ingredients (10 small cakes)

Dry ingredients:
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup semolina flour (or omit this and just use 3 cups all-purpose flour)
4 tablespoons coconut milk powder
5 tablespoons desiccated coconut flakes
1 cup demerra sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt


Wet ingredients:
1 ½ (300 ml) soy milk
Juice from 1 small/medium lemon
1 teaspoon zest (or from 1 small/medium lemon)
½ cup (100 ml) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Icing:
5-6 tablespoons icing sugar
Juice from 1 small lemon
1 tablespoon coconut milk powder

Optional:
Coconut flakes
Shredded lemon peel

Preheat oven at 200 degrees Celsius.
Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix all wet ingredients together separately.
Pour wet ingredients over dry, stirring gently.
Do not beat the mixture but make sure everything is thoroughly mixed.
Pour into individual tartlet tins or into a 22 – 26 cm (9 – 10 in) baking tin.
Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.
Allow to cool before icing.


For the icing:
Mix the lemon juice with the icing sugar and coconut milk powder until everything is completely dissolved into a pouring consistency (not too runny). Drizzle over cakes.
Sprinkle with coconut flakes and lemon peel shreds.