Don’t be put off by the title, you’d never guess that this tender, zesty lemon cake is vegan. Feel free to omit the icing if you’re not a big fan of coconut.

Ingredients (serves 10-12)
1¾ cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarb soda
¼ teaspoon fine salt
⅔ cup canola oil
¾ cup caster sugar
1 cup full fat coconut milk (including as much of the thicker cream as possible)
Zest of 2 lemons, plus 45ml lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blueberry compote
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1½ teaspoons cornflour

Coconut icing
1 cup coconut yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Grease the sides and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar and coconut milk, then add in the lemon zest, juice and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, whisking to combine, then pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30–35 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool completely in its tin.

To make the blueberry compote, place the blueberries, lemon juice, sugar and 50ml of cold water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the blueberries have softened. Remove from the heat.

Combine the conflour with 1½ teaspoons of cold water in a small cup. Stir the paste into the blueberries, put back on a medium heat and stir for about 30 seconds, or until thickened. Pour into a jug to cool and set.

To make the icing, combine yoghurt, vanilla and icing sugar in a small bowl.

Just before serving, invert the cake onto a serving plate or cake stand and top with icing and compote (I like to swirl the two together). Enjoy!

Adapted from ‘Lemon Tendercake with Blueberry Compote’ in Nigella Lawson’s At My Table.