Nettle & Lemon Cake
with lemon buttercream, gingery magnolia flowers, figs, heather. cow parsley, purple dead nettle, primroses and red flowering current.
This is one of my favourite recipes to make. A real celebration of our native lands!
It is bright green and full of the most wonderful array of minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidants and essential fatty acids!
I don’t add a lot of sugar, as I prefer to keep inflammation low in my body. Nettle has a very powerful anti-inflammatory action, so I see an opportunity for balance, here.
Too much sugar is never a good thing but neither is perfectionism or setting ourselves up for failure. And what I’ve learned, is that when we are happier, feeling calmer, less anxious, and putting let pressure on ourselves to be perfect, our immune systems also work better, too.
So, I’ve decided to make room for a few sugary treats. I don’t eat this often, so it really is a treat. But it tastes so much better for it that way!
And what better way to treat yourself than with a cake that we can confirm is actually good for you, whilst also being better for the environment, by using locally foraged ingredients!
I, also, always try my best to use organic ingredients, where possible!
I know it’s not always possible for the old purse strings but organic will always be better for you.
Not only will you reduce the toxic load of chemicals from pesticides and weedkillers (plus all the extra sprayed on them to keep them ‘shelf-fresh’) that are linked to cancer, chronic illness, and disease but organic also guarantees a higher nutrient count, which lowers inflammation.
On top of this, organic certification, ensures soil and nature conservation efforts are at work during the production process.
So, for me, I think it’s worth making cuts in other places. Wild and organic food, is medicine. And there’s nothing more important than our health.
This is self-love, at it’s finest!
Vegan Nettle & Lemon Cake
Equipment
- 1 cake tin - any size, really. The wider the pan the thinner the cake and time in oven will need reducing.
- 1 large bowl
- 1 whisk
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 measuring spoons
- 1 measuring jug
- 1 scales
- 1 spatula or palette
Ingredients
- 2 large handfuls spring nettle tops Enough to fill a double bamboo steamer. Use the tips found in spring or regrowth from previously cut back nettles.
- 190 ml plant milk (I use oat milk)
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of 1 lemon reserve a tsp for buttercream
- 80 ml organic rapeseed oil
- 120-150 g organic cane sugar
- 260 g organic white flour Wheat has some of the highest amounts of pesticides
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of Soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 220 g vegan butter block or organic dairy butter Organic dairy is high in omega 3 and produced in the UK, so a good option if you are not vegan.
- 420 g icing sugar
- 1 squeeze lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla (or sweet woodruff) extract
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 170c/150 fan. Line a loaf tin with non-stick baking paper. Take out the base and draw around it on the baking paper. Cut out and set aside. Then cut two strips wide enough to just come over the top of the sides of the cake tin. Trim one down, so they both fit around the sides and meet each other just slightly overlapping. Then brush the tin with oil and stick the paper pieces to the tin.
- Add nettle tops to a double steamer and steam for around 5 minutes. Add immediately to a cold water bath to stop them cooking and quickly squeeze the water from them. I like to do this before too much nettle goodness is lost to the water that is thrown away. If you don’t have a steamer, simply boil for a couple of minutes and add to the cold water bath.
- Add your nettles to a blender and add in lemon juice, and plant milk. Once blended, add in oil and whizz again, briefly, to combine.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, bicarb, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Pour in your nettle mix and stir until well combined.
- Pour into your tin and bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Once out of the oven, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire wrack to cool completely.
- Add the icing sugar, butter, juice and vanilla extract to a large bowl or stand mixer bowl. Start on the lowest speed on your mixer or hand whisk and gradually increase the speed until the mixture is thick and smooth.
- If the mixture is too thick, add a small amount of plant milk, a drop at a time. If it's too thin, add more icing sugar.
- Spread the first layer on the top and sides of your cake (you can spread in between too if you like) and then put in the fridge for at least 30 mins. This step is best done with a cake spatula or palette knife. If you don't have one any spatula will do.
- Take the cake out of the fridge and spread the final layer onto the cake. I like the make long sweeps across the cake as a finishing touch.
- Finally decorate with fruit and pretty edible wild things!