Vegan Armenian Perok Cake

Vegan Armenian Perok Cake

5 from 3 votes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Armenian

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 45

Total Time: 1 5

Servings: 8 big slices

Calories: 496kcal

Author: Kelly

Cost: $0.85

This veganized Armenian perok cake, which looks like a pie and tastes like a buttery pound cake, with a sticky layer of jam, has won approval from everyone who's eaten it.

Print Recipe

US Imperial (Cups) - Metric (Grams)

Equipment

Electric mixer (either a stand mixer or hand mixer)
9- or 10-inch cake pan

Ingredients

¾ cup vegan butter or margarine (see Note 1)
1 cup brown or white sugar
1 cup Homemade Vegan Yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine salt or 3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup apricot jam or any other jam (see "Choose Your Jam" section)

Instructions

Cream vegan butter and sugar together in a bowl using an electric mixer for about a minute or until smooth and pale in colour.
Add yogurt and vanilla extract and beat for half a minute.
Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix on low speed for another half minute or until just incorporated.
Reserve roughly 1 cup (250 g) of the batter. Spoon the rest of the batter into one 9- or 10-inch cake pan, or three mini loaf pans.
Gently smooth using the back of a spoon to create a fairly even surface, then spread the jam onto the batter.
For the reserved cup of batter, you can either drop it by the spoonful onto the jam if you're lazy, or shape into strips and lay them at least an inch apart in a lattice pattern. The batter is very soft so you won't be able to form perfect pie-like lattice strips, which is fine. Just roll roughly rope-like strands.
Bake at 350 °F for 45 minutes on the center rack (see Note 2).
Optional: brush a thin layer of jam on top of the dough parts of the cake to create a shiny "egg wash" finish.

Notes

I have tested Becel Plant-Based Bricks, Becel Vegan Margarine, and Miyoko's Cultured Vegan Butter for this recipe. All three worked well, but the cake with the softest crumb was the one made with Becel Vegan. It also happens to be the cheapest, so that worked out nicely. :-)
I use an oven thermometer to ensure that the temperature is maintained at 350 °F. Your oven may run hotter or cooler so if you don't have a thermometer, go by the colour of the top of the cake: if it looks lightly golden, it's good to go. If it browns well before the 45 minute mark then it's too hot; turn the oven off and put a piece of aluminum foil on top of the cake to cover it and prevent further browning, then allow it to reach 40 minutes of total baking before taking it out.

Nutrition