In a lovely moment of serendipity, I’m accidentally coordinating with today’s official VeganMoFo prompt: afternoon tea!

My family never enjoyed the marvelous tradition that is afternoon tea when I was a child, but we did enjoy some treats that would’ve been quite at home alongside a teapot and a platter of scones. One of my favorite sweets — and one that my mom made not infrequently — was a luscious lemon tea bread. “Bread” in the quick bread sense, of course, a cake-like delight that was bursting with fresh lemon flavor. I’ve always been partial to lemon, and this particular dessert was one of my favorites.

Today is my mom’s birthday, and to celebrate from afar, I made a vegan lemon tea loaf last night. I used this recipe from Walks, Talks, & Eats, which I found earlier this year and absolutely love. I spent many years craving a vegan version of the lemon loaf of my youth, and this one absolutely fills that void. Thanks to an exciting technique where you pour lemon syrup over the freshly baked bread, the final product is soaked in lemony goodness and then drizzled with a simple icing. It’s a denser, more pound cake-like loaf than I remember, but it might be even better. (You could certainly skip the syrup soaking and go right to the icing instead, but I adore that extra hit of lemon.) Mine always sinks down a bit more than the one in Emma’s photo, but it’s delicious nonetheless.

I enjoyed a slice alongside a cup of tea as a mid-afternoon snack at work, and it went down a treat. I highly recommend this recipe.

Happy birthday, Mom! I will eat another slice in your honor tonight. ;) Love you!