Coca de yogur (lemon yogurt cake)

A veganised version of the lemon yogurt sheet cake typical from Valencia. Fluffy and citrusy. Perfect for merienda.


Hola!

Today I bring you a lemon yogurt sponge cake, similar to a sheet cake in thickness, and very fluffy. It is baked in a large baking tin (llanda) and it is a shallow cake that gets baked quite quickly, so you can have a breakfast or merienda ready within an hour!

In Valencia, we use this aluminium tin to make this cake with yogurt (coca de yogur), or a similar one without yogurt (coca de llanda). It is so very well-known because it’s very simple. Before we had our fancy measuring cups, it was very easy to make this cake because we used the yogurt pot itself as a measuring cup. It is actually 125g, which is equivalent to 1/2 cup. You can use a regular soya yogurt pot to measure the other ingredients, or I used the measuring cup, since I tend to buy vegan yogurts in 500g tubs.

We would normally use a lemon yogurt, but lemon vegan yogurts are not that common, so I used a plain soya yogurt and added lemon essence, lemon juice and lemon zest. If lemon is not your cup of tea, you can use vinegar instead of the lemon juice, skip the essence and zest, and add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder for a chocolate cake.

PLANT POWER, MAKE-UP!

The original recipe has cow’s milk and eggs so I replaced the latter for vinegar and bicarb soda. It makes sense, because when these two are mixed, they produce a chemical reaction that releases gas. The result is a wonderfully light and fluffy texture for this cake. Another piece of advice to generally get fluffy cakes is to mix the acidic chemical (vinegar/lemon juice) with the soya milk first, to let it thicken. And the last piece of advice is, do not open the oven until the 15-minute mark! This is what always makes cakes collapse. From 15-20 minutes, check with a toothpick, and when it comes out clean, it’s fully baked.


COCA DE YOGUR (LEMON YOGURT CAKE)


Serves: 4-5 people
Prep: 20 minutes
Bake: 20 minutes


INGREDIENTS

Zest of 1 lemon
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup soya milk
1/2 cup soya yogurt
1/2 cup olive oil
1-2 tsp. lemon essence
1 cup demerara sugar
1 + 1/2 cup white flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. bicarbonate of soda


INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Mix the zest and lemon juice with the soya milk, and let it curdle for 10 minutes.
  2. Mix in the remaining ingredients, liquids first, and combine well.
  3. Pour into a rectangular baking tin (mine is a Valencian llanda tin, 34 x 22.5 cm) and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle some more sugar on top, if you wish.

Bon profit!