Nigella Lawson Vegan Lemon Polenta Cake

Nigella Lawson’s vegan lemon polenta cake is a flat, syrup-soaked cake built on ground almonds and fine polenta, using light olive oil and almond-soy yogurt where the original had butter and eggs. It bakes at 180°C for about 40 minutes, gives 8 to 12 slices, and is naturally gluten-free.

The story behind it, told in Cook, Eat, Repeat (2020), is unusually generous. Nigella had struggled for ages to veganise her classic lemon polenta cake, then spotted a working version by Katy Morgan of the Oat Milk & Cookies blog, who posts under #veganisingnigella. She asked how it was done, tried it, and adapted it with thanks.

The make-or-break is the yogurt. Nigella found that purer, artisan plant yogurts didn’t hold the cake together, and that a standard commercial almond-soy type is what gives it structure. Get that wrong and the crumb won’t set properly.

Nigella Lawson Vegan Lemon Polenta Cake

Recipe by Pinch PerfectCourse: DessertCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

8-12

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

290

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

5

minutes

A dairy-free, egg-free and gluten-free reworking of a Nigella classic from Cook, Eat, Repeat (2020), adapted from Katy Morgan’s version. One bowl, one jug, no mixer, no creaming.

Ingredients

• 150g ground almonds

• 150g fine polenta (not instant)

• 2 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (gluten-free if necessary)

• ¼ tsp fine sea salt

• 100ml light olive oil, plus a little extra for greasing the tin

• 200g caster sugar

• 2 large lemons, at room temperature

• 250ml almond-milk plain soy yogurt, at room temperature

• 75g icing sugar

• To serve:

• berries of your choice (optional)

Directions

• Mix the dry: Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan (350°F) and line and lightly grease the sides of a 20cm springform tin. Fork the ground almonds, polenta, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a bowl.
• Mix the wet: Pour the oil into a large wide-necked measuring jug, add the caster sugar and grate the zest of both lemons on top. Stir for a minute, then beat in the yogurt until completely combined.
• Combine: Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until everything’s evenly incorporated.
• Bake: Scrape into the tin and bake for about 40 minutes, until the cake starts nudging away from the sides and a tester comes out clean. Make the syrup as soon as the cake goes in.
• Make the syrup: Put the icing sugar in a small pan with 75ml of juice from the zested lemons. Warm gently, whisking out any lumps, just until the sugar dissolves, then pour straight into a jug to cool.
• Soak: When the cake’s baked, move it to a wire rack and prick it deeply all over with the tester so the syrup can run down inside. Pour or spoon the syrup over slowly, so it soaks in rather than ponding on top.
• Cool and release: Leave the cake to cool, soaked in its syrup. Before unclipping, run a thin palette knife round the edge to loosen it where the syrup has stuck it to the tin. Don’t worry if it won’t come off the base cleanly. Serve plain or with berries.

FAQs

What if I can’t find the almond-soy yogurt?

The one Nigella uses is a plain soya yogurt with added almond, sold in the UK as something like “plain with almond.” She’s specific that soya provides the structure, and says its flavour isn’t detectable in the finished cake, which matters if, like her, you don’t normally get on with soya.

If you can’t track that exact one down, a plain soya yogurt with a little almond extract stirred in is the closest match. Coconut yogurt works too but leaves a faint coconut taste. Some bakers add a tablespoon or two of ground flaxseed to a thinner plant yogurt to firm up the structure, which is worth trying if yours looks runny.

Do I have to use fine polenta rather than instant?

Yes, and it’s worth respecting. Nigella calls for fine polenta, not instant, because the slow-cooking grains give that gritty, custardy texture that makes the cake taste, in her words, like lemon curd only just set into cake. Instant polenta is pre-cooked and behaves differently in the crumb.

Fine is the key word, not coarse. Coarse polenta leaves the cake unpleasantly sandy, where fine gives you texture without grit. This grainy tenderness is the whole point of a polenta cake, so it’s not a place to substitute plain flour and expect the same thing.

Is it really gluten-free, and can I make it nut-free?

It’s naturally gluten-free, because there’s no wheat flour in it at all, just ground almonds and polenta. Nigella does add one caution: if you actually need it to be gluten-free, check that every ingredient, especially the baking powder and bicarb, is labelled gluten-free, because brands vary in whether they guarantee it.

For nut allergies, she suggests replacing the ground almonds with rice flour, which keeps the cake accessible to more people. That swap changes the texture slightly, losing some of the tender richness the almonds bring, but it works. It’s one of the reasons she calls this a near-universal pleaser.

Why do I prick the cake and pour the syrup on while it’s warm?

The deep holes are what let the lemon syrup travel down into the cake rather than sitting on the surface. Nigella has you go in deep with the tester and then pour slowly, resisting the urge to tip it all on at once, so it soaks through evenly instead of making a pond on top.

A warm cake drinks the syrup in; a cold one lets it slide off. The soaked syrup is also what keeps the cake moist for days, so don’t skip or rush it. The same drench-while-warm logic sits behind a lot of Nigella’s loaf and single-layer bakes, like her ginger and walnut carrot cake.

Can I use oranges, or a different syrup?

Oranges work as a straight swap for the lemons, in both the cake and the syrup, giving a mellower, sweeter result. Plenty of people make it that way when they’ve oranges to use up, and it holds together just the same.

Nigella herself suggests you could replace the lemon syrup with her lemon and elderflower drizzle if you fancy a floral note. Beyond that, the base recipe is forgiving with citrus. If you want a completely different pudding-style cake for a dinner party instead, chocolate raspberry pudding cake goes rich and dark rather than sharp and lemony.

How long does it keep, and can I make it ahead or freeze it?

This is our testing rather than Nigella’s own note, though it lines up with what The Happy Foodie’s team tell readers. Kept in an airtight container, it holds well for about three days, and the syrup keeps it moist rather than letting it dry out, so it’s a good make-ahead cake.

It also freezes cleanly, whole or in slices, wrapped well. Thaw at room temperature before serving. Served cold with a pile of berries, it makes an easy summer pudding; if you want something more of a showstopper for the same crowd, Nigella’s prodigious pavlova is the fruit-topped alternative.