Orange Blossom, Olive Oil and Black Sesame Cake

Plus maybe the best vegan pizza I've ever had..?

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If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I actually really don’t enjoy making cakes.

It’s not because I don’t enjoy eating cakes (who among us??). If I’m being transparent, it’s because I hate decorating cakes. I find the pressure too much to handle. Something about having only one shot to get it right, while simultaneously needing to be very creative and artistic, it just tweaks my anxiety into action. It’s like asking someone to paint a bowl of fruit while defusing a bomb. It’s not my strong suit, what can I say? So, when I write cake recipes I like to come up with ones that look and taste very very nice, without all the bomb defusing stress.

Loaf cakes (like this one) are a dream because they’re super easy to bake and pretty much always end up looking like a brick. Like, that’s kind of the idea. A dream! Can’t go wrong! Fold in some bonkers delicious flavours like citrussy orange blossom, punchy extra virgin olive oil and nutty black sesame, and you’re onto a winner.

The flavours of this cake were inspired by one my friend Kelly used to make at vegan cafe Fields Beneath in London. It feels like a riff on a classic lemon poppyseed cake, except the citrus is orange and the seeds are black sesame. It just makes sense when you taste it. I used extra virgin olive oil instead of butter because it keeps things moist but it also introduces that grown-up kick of bitterness that balances out the sweet icing.

I’ve learned a bunch of tricks for baking vegan cakes over the years (probably an attempt to hate the process slightly less) so I’ve included my two favourite ones below, because I think they could help you regardless of whether you’re baking this recipe, or another one (or even adapting one of your own).

But before we hit the recipe stuff, here’s a super quick update of some stuff that happened this week.

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Weekly Wrap

I had maybe the best pizza of my life (vegan or otherwise)

So I’ve just moved to Manchester from Hastings. If you’re not up on UK geography, that’s basically from the south coast to the north west. This means lots of things, but most importantly, it means I now have a Purezza on my doorstep. Purezza is the fully vegan pizza place that won top prize at the world pizza championships back in 2019. I mean come on. I live!

I’ve been a bunch of times before but this time was a total home run. I ordered the pesto one because I’m not a huge fan of cooked, store-bought vegan cheese (folks, we are not quite there yet, sorry). This one has their signature sourdough crust, tomato sauce, vegan pesto and the incredible Superstraccia from Julienne Bruno (a vegan alternative to mozzarella stracciatella that you simply NEED to try). I also really wanted to try their pepperoni so I added this to the pizza too and, can I just say, holy shit.

It was just me and Ripley (my dog) visiting this time, so I had to turn to the stranger next to me and say “oh my god, this is amazing!”. She didn’t appreciate it because people are scared of enthusiasm in this country, but still I rise. In case I didn’t make it clear enough yet - GO TO PUREZZA IF YOU GET THE CHANCE!

I made a delicious sandwich

I really love tempeh, and I think it’s important to remind you all that you don’t need to cook it! As an example, I’ve been using the smoked stuff essentially as deli meat in sandwiches. I’ve been using a brand called Tiba Tempeh because it comes in a cylinder shape and seems more firm than other varieties, meaning you can slice it more thinly than other brands. Unfortunately it’s really difficult to find unpasteurised tempeh in the UK (any tips, let me know in the comments pls) but at least it’s still super tasty and really high protein.

This sandwich was also pretty much transformed by the Vadasz jalapeno relish which I’m just a bit obsessed with. I think next time I’m going to try making a tempeh-turkey club sandwich. Classic!

I encountered the strongest smelling elderflower bush of my entire life

It’s been a whole week of superlatives, it seems. I was doing an early morning walk with Ripley in a really beautiful spot I’ve found in the city and the sun was just starting to peak above the trees. I turned a corned and basically got punched in the face by the smell of this elderflower bush. I love elderflower as much as the next guy, but something about the way the sun was hitting this particular one, maybe because it was still coated in dew which was actively evaporating in front of my eyes, anyway, it smelled insane!!

It smelled like a freshly baked lemon cake. It was so weird. Citrussy, fruity, sweet and yet somehow warm and toasty. I don’t have the best sense of smell, so I know that when something hits me this hard, it’s a punchy fella. The dog was like “why you cryin dad?”. Anyway, I wish I could capture the smell for you somehow, but the best I could do was this rubbish picture. Look at how frothy it is!

The best part is that this entire beautiful nature reserve used to be the ash tip of a victorian power plant. Not to get all substack sentimental on you, but imagine the serious lack of beauty and nature that used to be here… Imagine what it used to smell like here?? Certainly not fresh lemon cake!

The park is called Clayton Vale, for anyone interested in visiting. I’ve put a little before and after below for you. It made me do a little cry. Credit for these photos here and here.

Clayton Vale 1913 - 2020

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Two Tips for Nailing Vegan Cakes

OK, here we go. Hopefully you find these helpful.

1. Going Eggless

We give eggs too much credit, when it comes to cake. In most cases, they’re absolutely not necessary. Unless you’re adapting a recipe that uses whipped egg whites, they’re essentially just there to add moisture, fat and to help emulsify the batter. This is easily done with plant based ingredients instead. Here’s my cheat code for replacing a large egg in a cake. For every large egg called for in a recipe, instead use:

• 2 tbsp plant milk (I prefer soy, but just make sure it’s unsweetened and unflavoured).

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (if you’re already using oil in your cake, just add this to the overall quantity)

• 1 tsp cornstarch (aka corn flour in the UK)

The plant milk brings the moisture, the vegetable oil replaces the fat and the cornstarch helps the cake to emulsify and brown. Bingo!

Here’s my vegan Birthday Cake recipe, which is a big hitter and a good place to start if you’re just getting into vegan baking.

2. Swapping Fats

Butter ain’t vegan, duh, so you won’t be using this in any vegan cakes. To replace it, you can use store-bought vegan butter (a gram to gram replacement is usually fine here) or you can use any vegetable oil. Sunflower oil, rapeseed oil (aka canola oil in the US) or avocado oil all work well, or like with this recipe, you can use a very tasty extra virgin olive oil. Keep these two things in mind though.

If you’re adapting a non-vegan recipe, and you’ve decided to swap the butter for oil, you’ll want to reduce the weight by 20%. This is because only about 80% of butter is pure fat, the rest is water, solids, salt etc. So if your cake recipe calls for 100g butter, you’ll need to use 80g of oil instead.

And secondly, bear in mind the smoke point of the oil you’re using. Olive oil has a smoke point of around 190ºc. This is the temperature at which the oil begins to break down and produce smoke. If you hit this temperature while baking, it’ll spoil the texture and flavour of your cake. This recipe is baked at 175ºc, so you’re totally safe with this one.

Here’s another one of my faves, it’s my Vegan Pound Cake recipe, which I literally worked on for five years!

OK, and that’s enough rambling. Here’s your recipe. Hope you had a great week!

LOVE YOU!

P.s. Dog tax

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This Week’s Recipe: Orange Blossom, Olive Oil and Black Sesame Seed Cake

(With Downloadable PDF Version)