The Dairy-Free Lemon Cake Everyone Fell in Love With

You know those recipes that start as a “let’s see if this works” and somehow turn into “wait… this is incredible”? That’s exactly what happened with this dairy-free lemon cake. It was the first time I had ever baked a cake from scratch and I truly did not believe it would work out. But alas, I surprised even myself by my talents.

I wasn’t working off anything fancy. I had a get-together with some friends and a bucket list calendar telling me to bake something with edible flowers. So I looked at the ingredients I had in my pantry/fridge, put it all into my handy dandy notebook (ChatGPT), and got to work. I used oat milk instead of cows milk, skipped any heavy frostings, and topped it with a lemon glaze and edible flowers, and somehow it turned out as a perfect dairy-free lemon cake.

It was:

• Moist
• Fluffy
• Bright with lemon
• Light enough to eat two slices without regret

I made just one layer, let it cool, then spooned over a lemon vanilla glaze that dripped down the sides in that dreamy, accidental-but-intentional way (it was actually really difficult for me HAHA and I filmed the whole thing for TikTok). I pressed in a few (a lot) edible flowers for a cottagecore touch, and let me just say, it looked like it belonged in a little countryside bakery window.

And the best part? Everyone loved it.

Okay, enough bragging on myself. I actually despise those recipe blog posts that have paragraphs on paragraphs of story before the recipe. So I’ll stop now because I don’t want to be super annoying, just slightly annoying.

🍋 The Recipe For A Dairy-Free Lemon Cake

You’ll need:

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup butter (use a dairy-free butter like Earth Balance or Miyoko’s)
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (plus zest if you have it)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup oat milk

For the glaze:

• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1–2 tsp lemon juice
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• Optional: splash of oat milk for creaminess
• Edible flowers for the top

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🍰 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease your springform pan.
2. Cream together the dairy-free butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, lemon juice, and vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with oat milk. Mix just until combined.
6. Pour into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 25–30 minutes.
7. Let it cool completely before glazing.
8. For the glaze, whisk everything until thick but pourable. Spoon it onto the center of the cake and gently nudge it outward so it drips naturally.
9. Decorate with edible flowers while the glaze is still wet.

This cake is now going into my regular rotation. I will force everyone I know to try it. It was simple enough for me to make, and pretty enough to bring to brunch or serve at a shower. Plus, it made my kitchen smell unreal.

I highly recommend making it on a slow afternoon, playing some Taylor Swift, and pretending you live in a cozy cottage where lemon cake is always on the counter.