It’s a brand-new year and a brand-new I am a Food Blog! Okay, not completely brand-new, but Mike did do a little re-design, which you can read a little bit about here. The start of a new year usually means that people are on the look out for recipes that just a wee bit healthier. I’m not really one to be all fanatical about the healthy stuff, but I do think this cake is nice, light and perfect if you’re looking for something sweet but not too crazy after all of your holiday indulgences. Plus, starting off the new year with cake for breakfast is something I can definitely get behind.
This cake is tender, lemon-y, and light (due to the whipped egg whites). If you don’t have any almond flour on hand, you can always use your food processor to make some, but I like having a bag kicking around in my pantry. Almond flour is great for the obvious (macaron) and the not so obvious (almond chicken fingers). I get the feeling that people think that almond flour is a specialty sort of ingredient – mostly for gluten-free baked goods – but the truth is, I really like baked goods made with almond flour. It lends a moistness and chewy texture that I’m really in to.
Other things I’m really in to: New Year’s Resolutions. Are you guys resolution types? When I was younger, I never really believed in them, but now that time keeps marching on, I like to take some time at the end/beginning of the year to reflect on what I’ve accomplished and what I want to focus on. 2014 was a crazy year and I’m hoping 2015 will be just as wild. My 2015 resolution: be fearless. Two tiny words, but I’m hoping that this year is the year I learn to judge myself less, be a little more secure, and live my life without reservations.
Cheers to fresh starts, learning to love ourselves, gluten-free lemon loafs, and to a brand-spanking-new 2015!
Gluten-Free Lemon Almond Cake Recipe slightly adapted from Simply Recipes
makes 1 small loaf
- 2 eggs
- zest from 2 meyer lemons
- 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons sugar
- 3/4 cup almond flour/ground almonds
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 tsp cardamom
- pinch of salt
- thyme sprigs, lemon slices and powdered sugar, to serve
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly butter or grease your loaf pan (I used a small loaf pan, similar to these).
Separate your eggs carefully: yolks into a medium-sized bowl and whites going into a large absolutely grease-free bowl. You need to make sure the bowl of whites have absolutely no fat – this will help them whip up nice and fluffy. Lightly beat the yolks and add the zest and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mix until smooth. Add the ground almonds, baking powder, and cardamom. Mix until smooth.
With an electric mixer, or good old fashioned elbow grease, whip up the egg whites until they start foaming. Sprinkle on a pinch of salt, which will help the structure of the whites. As they start increasing in volume, sprinkle on the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar into the eggs as you beat until soft to medium peaks form.
Fold a small amount of the whites into the yolk mixture being sure not to over mix. Gradually fold in all the whites, a bit at a time, being sure not to deflate. You should have a light and fluffy batter. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. Lightly dust with icing sugar and enjoy with thinly sliced lemons and thyme sprigs.
Sounds perfect for my lemon craving. Can the recipe be doubled? I have a crowd for Easter brunch.
yes! the original recipe i adapted this from is doubled. you’ll probably have to bake for a little while longer. start checking at 35 minutes :)
I love this! I’m twelve and baking is one of my favorite hobbies but my mom is gluten free. I made it once before and so I decided to make it again but I couldn’t find it for a while. I literally searched for an hour to find this exact recipe. I used coconut flour though because we didn’t have almond. With coconut we had to double the yolks and whites but it worked great! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
I don’t know how any of you got the whites to fold. My almond meal and egg yolks were too gooey with no liquid. did I miss something? followed verbatim and total failure. 1/4″ high,.
hi tina! so sad your loaf didn’t rise. what size eggs did you use and how coarse/fine was your almond meal? the almond meal egg yolk mixture is pretty gooey – did you fold in just a bit of whites to start to lighten up the egg yolk mixture?
I just made this loaf and it was absurdly fluffy – like eating a lemon omlette. I doubled the recipe so it would work in a regular loaf pan. Otherwise followed instructions fully – maybe I over-beat the eggs? It rose gorgeously and then fell a bit when cooling, but I don’t know if the texture is correct at all. It seems like an incredibly light texture for a ‘loaf’ or a ‘cake’!
it’s definitely a light crumb due to the lack of flour. was it tasty?!
I found your website by accident, and what a wonderful accident it was!
I am making this recipe for Passover. Can I make it in advance and freeze it?
hi wendy,
i haven’t tried freezing it, so i’m not sure how it would taste. it is a rather delicate loaf, so it would be best if you just made it just before you’re going to eat it :)
This cake freezes beautifully!!!!
I double the recipe because it does not rise very high..
Love the recipe because it is not too sweet and with meyer lemon season ending in my area(Canada) I substitute orange zest and it is just as good!!!!!
No oil or fat is needed in this recipe?
hi, it’s just the fat from the egg yolks :)
I have made this cake for christmas and had the same issue than several people here, in that the almond mixture is super crumbly, even after adding the egg whites. I then put in all the lemon juice and then I got a nice batter I could bake. The cake was nice but pretty dense since all the egg whites almost deflated while trying to mix them under the crumbly mixture. So next time I’ll be adding the lemon juice before folding in the egg whites and it should work well.