Prepare to be wowed by this vegan lemon loaf recipe! Moist lemon cake covered in a perfectly sweetened lemon glaze is what dreams are made of. Whip up this lemon loaf with a handful of simple ingredients!
This lemon loaf recipe is everything to me, and maybe I’m slightly biased because I, for one, am a huge lemon dessert fan. Give me lemon cake, lemon scones, lemon cookies any day over anything chocolate.
Don’t get me wrong, chocolate is amazing too. I’m a major sweets fan, but light citrusy desserts are where it’s at.
If you are a Starbucks fan, you are aware of their infamous lemon loaf. People go nuts over that stuff. Unfortunately, like all their pastries, that precious lemon loaf recipe is not vegan.
Ingredients in Vegan Lemon Loaf
- I substituted butter with coconut oil. This is a far healthy substitute and tastes superb paired with lemon. However, if that buttery flavor is your thing (which I think it’s everyone’s thing) you can substitute with a vegan butter such as Earth Balance.
- Flax eggs instead of regular eggs. If you are familiar with vegan baking, I’m sure you know by now flax seeds are a common way to make vegan eggs. When mixed with water, it created a gelatinous mixture resembling a raw egg. This helps bind the bread recipe in a plant-based way!
Tips on making this lemon loaf:
- Cream butter (or in this case, coconut oil) and sugar. I’m sure you’ve read this in recipes before, but creaming butter and sugar is a science. It adds more air to your batter, resulting in a lighter cake. Here’s a super detailed article that gets into the nitty-gritty of this important step!
- Sift flour before adding to the batter. This breaks up the larger pieces and helps equally disperse all the ingredients into the batter. Plus, it’s easier to mix!
How to make vegan lemon glaze
Whisk together the powdered sugar, vegan butter, and lemon juice until it’s thick and smooth. You can use water to thin out if needed.
Get creative with this lemon loaf recipe!
- Add blueberries when they are in season for a delicious lemon blueberry loaf!
- Add some poppy seeds for a delicious flavor element
- Substitute lemon with orange and add craisins to make a tasty cranberry-orange loaf
- Instead of using all-purpose flour, use a gluten-free blend to make this lemon loaf recipe GF
Share this lemon loaf with your friends and family for your next brunch plans. It makes a great recipe for Easter and Mother’s Day too!
If you tried this vegan lemon loaf recipe, let me know in the comments below and share a photo using #mindfulavocado. I’d love to hear from you! Want to see more recipes? Let’s get social! CONNECT WITH ME on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest to see what I’m currently cooking up!
Related: Vegan lemon scones
Vegan Lemon Loaf with Lemon Glaze
Ingredients
Lemon Loaf:
- 1/2 cup coconut oil soft and scoopable
- 3/4 cup cane sugar
- 2 flax eggs (2 Tablespoons flax seeds + 6 Tablespoons water)
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice (juice from about 1 lemon)
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 1.5 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Lemon Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon vegan butter (such as Earth Balance) can substitute with coconut oil if preferred; melted
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice (juice from about 1 lemon)
Tools:
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Mix flax seed and water in small bowl and set in fridge
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together coconut oil and sugar until coconut oil is in small, pea-sized clumps
- Add flax eggs, almond milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest to mixing bowl. Stir well.
- In another mixing bowl, sift flour. Add baking powder and salt and mix well.
- Add flour mixture to wet mixture and stir well. Pour into a greased loaf pan.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes. To test if fully cooked, stick a butter knife through the center and ensure it comes out clean.
To Make the Glaze:
- In a small mixing bowl, add all ingredients for glaze and whisk until there are no clumps from the sugar
- Once the loaf is completely cooled, pour glaze onto lemon loaf.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Great lemon recipe, you have some good tips to make it vegan. It looks so tasty and moist.
Thanks, Laura!
Tasty loaf, but it did not rise. I will try it with vegan butter next time.
So sorry to hear that! Another thing to consider is your baking powder. If it is old, it loses it’s “rising powers”
I love lemon drizzle cake this looks and sounds delicious.
Thanks, Brian!
I think citrus flavoured desserts and cakes are just so tempting! The lemon glaze on this looks beautiful too, and although I haven’t made a vegan lemon cake I do like the sound of the coconut oil in this one.
Coconut oil is a great substitute for butter in baking – vegan or not! Glad you enjoyed!
Mmmm I love lemon loaf! This would be wonderful for an upcoming brunch I have planned! Thanks for sharing!
Sounds wonderful! So glad you enjoyed 🙂
I’ve made this moist and very lemony loaf many time and for all kinds of events. Folks really can’t believe it is a vegan item and they love it! Thank you for publishing!
Thanks, Cynthia! So glad you enjoyed 🙂
I made this last night and OMG is it good! I ramped up the lemon because my husband and I love lemon SO MUCH. Thanks KS for a great recipe, it was my first time baking with flax “eggs”
Yes! You just made my day! Nothing wrong with more lemon! 😉
Can I use avocado oil instead of coconut oil?
I have not tried that substitute but I wouldn’t see why not! A 1-1 ratio should be okay. I’d love to hear how it turns out if you try it!
Thank you for replying!
I loved the sound of this! I’ll have to make it again with AP flour. I made it using King Arthur’s gluten free flour (1-1 sub), but it was a little too oily and rubbery in texture. Great flavor but the texture threw me off. I think it was my substitution, so next time I’m doing AP flour and I bet it’ll be perfect. 🙂
Oh yes I never tested with a GF blend (and I’ve never used King Arthurs, only Bob’s Red Mill) Glad you liked the flavor though!
Looks amazing!! Do you know if it freezes well?
I have not tried freezing this but I would love to know how it turns out if you do!
This looks like an awesome recipe for a lovely spring day!
Can I substitute the AP flour with buckwheat flour or coconut flour or any other healthier alternative?
Hi Sneha! If you were to do a substitute, I would recommend whole wheat (although the color and texture would differ) or a GF blend. Coconut flour would make for a very dense loaf. If you try a substitute, I’d love to know!
Absolutely love this recipe. I add a tsp of ground cardamom to it typically, which gives it a really bright flavor that I think pairs well with lemon. I’ve fed it to so many non-vegans at this point and just watched their doubts about vegan baking melt. LOVE LOVE LOVE!
So happy to hear that! Thanks so much for sharing.
Very tasteful and moist!!!
Thanks so much!
This recipe is awesome! It is so soft, i love the texture. Also just enough lemony, not too much or too little.
I didn’t have coconut oil, so i used sunflower oil. Used soya milk instead of almond. Also added dried cranberries, turned out great ☺️
Thanks so much, Tara! Love all these modifications!
Can I use frozen blueberries or would that throw off the texture? Should I thaw them?
Also, when creaming coconut oil I’m assuming it should be in a more solid form right? Thanks!
Yes you can! No need to thaw beforehand. You want the coconut oil to be soft and scoopable. Hope that helps!
I’ve finally tried out this recipe which I had saved a long time ago. Reduced a bit the sugar of the dough because of the sweet glaze, used white spelt flour and added a few poppy seeds to it. It turned out amazing. Very fluffy and moist. I’m sure I’ll make this often from now on. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it, Toni!
This was incredible! Delicious and moist!
I didn’t have any fresh lemons so I substituted 1 tsp dried lemon peel, 1 tbsp lemon oil, and 1/2 tbsp white vinegar. I didn’t have flax seeds so I used bob’s red mill egg replacer mix and it worked great. I also added in some poppy seeds and turmeric for color.
I’ve been wanting lemon desserts for years but haven’t found a good vegan recipe- until now! Thank you 🙂
So happy you enjoyed, Emily! Love reading your substitutions too!
May I substitute applesauce for the oil to make it oil-free ?
I haven’t tested it out with applesauce but this sounds like a great substitution! I would love to hear how this turns out for you!
Really yummy!! I used vegan butter instead of coconut oil and added a little bit of lemon extract and it was delicious!!
Thanks, Bianca!
Did anyone try applesauce to replace the oil?
This turned out wonderful. I did have an issue with the initial mixing, my cold almond milk hardened the coconut oil in the mix and I ended up with chunks of oil separated from the sugar. I was able to save it by warming the mixture slightly. Next time I will bring the milk up to room temp before mixing. I served it to my non-vegan family and they loved it. I surprised them by telling them it was vegan!
So glad to hear and thank you for your feedback! I updated the recipe to say room temperate milk.