These dainty little cakes are little mouthfuls of lemon-infused sponge topped with a kawakawa tea glaze — don’t mention they are vegan and no one will even know.
Recipe and photography Miggs McTaylor
Ingredients
- 280ml (or 1 cup) + 2 Tbsp unsweetened oat milk or soya milk
- 30ml (or 2 Tbsp) lemon juice
- 180g (or 1 ½ cups) organic all-purpose flour
- 90g (or 2/3 cup) wholemeal flour
- 130g (or 2/3) golden castor sugar
- 45g (or 1/3 cup) fine coconut sugar or castor sugar
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- zest of 2 medium lemons
- ½ tsp finely ground Himalayan sea salt
- 2 tsp pure vanilla syrup
- 125ml (or ½ cup) canola oil
For the glaze
- ½ cup strong kawakawa tea
- ½ cup golden castor or raw sugar
Method
If using fresh lemons, zest before squeezing the juice.
Add lemon juice to oat or soya milk and set aside.
Position a rack in the upper third of oven and preheat to 180°C.
Grease 16 mini-brioche tins or a 12-hole standard cupcake tray with baking spray.
Sieve and mix dry ingredients together, stir in lemon zest.
Whisk canola oil and vanilla into the oat milk and lemon juice mixture. Pour into the dry ingredients while whisking until you have a smooth batter.
Pour into your baking tins of choice. For mini brioche moulds, leave at least a 2-3mm gap to the top of the tins. For a standard cupcake tin, leave it ¾ full. This mixture also works well as a small bunt cake.
For the glazing syrup, bring ½ cup of strong kawakawa tea (seived from tea leaves) and ½ cup of sugar of your choice (not coconut sugar) to the boil in a small pot. Boil for 2-3 minutes or until thick and syrupy.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until lightly golden and risen. Remove from tins and glaze with kawakawa tea syrup and garnish.