How to Make Vegan Swedish Almond Cake Mjuk Toscakaka
How to make vegan Swedish almond cake Mjuk Toscakaka, a rich, sticky, sweet cake – more a pudding than a cake, really – perfect for guests
This mad frenzy of cooking that I’m indulging in most weekends must be induced by the miserable rainy weather. The last few days it has been wet, wet, wet. No, it has been wet, wet, wet and wet. It makes you want to cook all sorts of stay indoors and get fat kind of food: muffins, cakes, biscuits.
So far, in the last fortnight, I have made pistachio cookies (a partial success: they resembled cowpats and spread out so much on the baking tray that in fact they resembled one large cowpat. They didn’t taste so bad though, although too chewy for my liking. My dog also approved. She finished off the few that were left in the tin, which in turn was open on the coffee table, leaving only a few tell-tale (or tail) crumbs on the settee and on her nose “what me?”), and the loveliest, most delicate cake (which I have dubbed my favourite!), a Swedish delicacy called Mjuk Toscakaka.
This is adapted from Tamasin Day-Lewis’ Art of the Tart and tastes like a Vanilla Pudding rather than a cake. It is a very tender sponge with a crunchy almond and caramel topping (and, more importantly is ridiculously easy to make!). Furthermore, it is certainly not a tart!
The original recipe utilised the usual suspects that you see in a creamed sponge: eggs, milk and butter, so I simply replaced these with Orgran Egg replacer, plant-based milk and a vegan spread. I like Pure for baking.
What makes Mjuk Toscakaka so special?
Mjuk is Swedish for soft and this cake is definitely soft, comforting, old fashioned but not anachronistic, and interesting enough that you could serve it for dessert at a get-together.
The crunchy caramel topping is what makes this cake exceptionally special, but you could omit that part altogether, and you would have a simple, elegant vanilla cake that you could dress up with raspberries and some whipped coconut cream.
It’s a breeze to make, and keeps really well in the tin for about 3-4 days (although I doubt it will last that long!).
Try my other vegan treats
- No-Bake Strawberry Cream Pie
- Berry Bundt Cakes
- Vegan Pear and Walnut Brownies
- No Bake Key Lime Pies!
- Mango Coconut Sticky Rice
- Best Vegan Banana Bread recipe
Vegan Swedish Almond Cake (Mjuk Toscakaka)
Equipment
- 8" Tart Tin, lined
Ingredients
- 150 Butter vegan
- 125g Superfine Sugar preferably golden
- 2 Vegan eggs made with Orgran Egg Replacer (2 tbsp egg replacer, whisked with 4 tbsp water)
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract best quality
- 150g Plain Flour sifted
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 5 tbsp Tap Water not hot
For the topping
- 30g Flaked Almonds
- 60g Butter vegan
- 5 tbsp Superfine Sugar
- 1 tbsp Plain Flour
- 1 tbsp Soy Milk or plant-based milk of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180c.
- Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Beat in vegan eggs gradually, then add vanilla extract.
- Sift in flour and baking powder, beat thoroughly.
- Add water and beat until smooth. I recommend using an electric handwhisk or standalone mixer. This should take about 5 minutes.
- Scrape into tart tin, smooth top and bake for 25-30 mins
- Remove from oven.
- Turn oven up to 200c
To make the topping
- Put all ingredients in saucepan over medium heat until all amalgamated and bubbling.
- Pour over top of cake (this is where you hope the cake hasn't gone over the top of the tart tin!).
- Put back in oven for 5 minutes.
- Leave to cool for at least 5 minutes for the top to set. It has a lovely, crunchy topping and the cake is tender, almost like a pudding.
I made this almond cake today and it turned out great! It was perfect and tasted delicious! Highly recommended!
This almond cake was the bomb! Thank you for this incredible recipe!
This vegan almond cake was so delicious! I loved how light it was and how amazing the almond flavor was!
Such a delicious almond cake! I like that it doesn’t take very long to make. It’s the perfect midday snack.
Hi! Any ideas how to make this if I can’t source egg replacer?
Thanks
Hi Liz, you could try using 2 tbsp ground flaxseed whisked up with 4tbsp water (leave to stand for 10 mins before using). That replicates egg replacer pretty well, or you could use 1/2 cup yogurt but that might make the cake a little too sticky, so you might need to up the flour by a quarter cup or so if the batter seems really wet. Finally, you could also use half a cup of applesauce instead. That will change the flavour of the cake slightly but does have a comparable texture to whisked eggs, which is what we’re trying to replicate.
If possible, I do recommend ordering a box of egg replacer on amazon or in your local Holland & Barrett if you do a lot of eggless baking. A box lasts ages and I find is a better substitute for things like cookies, where you want a nice, crisp finish.
Anyway, hope this helps and do let me know if any of my substitutions worked for you!