The other day, a very dear friend brought me six huge plump and fragrant meyer lemons from her grandmother's tree. I'd had my eye on a lemon-almond cake recipe that I'd clipped from Vegetarian Times magazine several years ago, as I love a nice, rustic tea-cake. I decided to make it gluten-free for my intolerant sister (ahem, that is, gluten-intolerant) and substituted the flour with extra ground almonds and some tapioca flour.
I was also ecstatic to find attractive, organic, California-grown strawberries that weren't outrageously overpriced the other day. I snapped them up, and served them, quartered and macerated with a bit of sugar, with said cake.
This dense, moist, not-too-sweet cake calls for a few different steps; toasting the almonds, grinding them with the tapioca flour, creaming the butter and sugar, whipping the whites to soft peaks, but they are all fairly simple to execute, and ensure delicious results. I may be a bad Jew, but I think this might even be kosher for Passover, no? (When is Passover, again?)
Strawberries! Spring can't be too far off, now...
For more cake recipes:
- (Gluten-Free) Buckwheat Hazelnut Financier Cake
- Gluten-Free Apple Cake with Brown Butter & Hazelnut
- (Gluten-Free) Chocolate Hazelnut Financier Cake
- Berry-Fig Financiers
- Gluten-Free Almond Lemon Olive Oil Cake
*Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, purchase my gluten-free cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this meyer lemon almond cake recipe, I’d love to know. Leave a comment and rating below, and tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.*
(Gluten-Free) Meyer Lemon Almond Cake
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole almonds, lightly toasted and cooled (see note)
- 4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature (1/2 cup, 1 stick)
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- zest of two medium meyer lemons
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup meyer lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 egg whites, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
For serving (optional):
- powdered sugar, for dusting the cooled cake
- lightly sweetened whipped cream
- 1-2 pints strawberries, hulled, quartered and tossed with a bit of sugar
Instructions
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350º. Butter an 8" round cake pan, and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar and zest until light and fluffy, 5 minutes on medium, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Add the yolks one at a time, mixing to combine.
- Meanwhile, in a food processor or coffee grinder, grind the almonds with the tapioca as finely as possible without turning them into almond butter. Add the baking powder and salt to combine.
- On low, stir the almond mixture into the butter mixture. Gradually add the lemon juice and vanilla extract. Scrape down the paddle and sides of the bowl.
- In a clean, large bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. With a large rubber spatula, stir a third of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the rest just to combine.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the top springs back when pressed with a finger, about 45 minutes. Let cool ten minutes. Invert a plate over the top of the cake, and, using oven mitts, flip the whole thing over. Remove the cake pan and the paper, and let the cake cool completely, about 1 hour, before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
*Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, purchase my gluten-free cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this gluten-free cake, I’d love to see. Tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.*
More Gluten-Free Cake Recipes:
- Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Pumpkin Bread
- Gluten-Free Apple Cake in a Skillet
- Gluten-Free Blueberry Coffeecake
- Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Carrot Cake
- Gluten-Free Red Velvet Cake {all-natural}
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Bundt Cake
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
- Gluten-Free Banana Cake with Chocolate Ganache
- Gluten-Free Upside-Down Cake with Poached Quince
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Gluten-Free Pound Cake with Lemon and Berries
- Gluten-Free Pear Cake with Chai Spices
- Gluten-Free Peach Cake
- Gluten-Free Plum Cake
Rosmarina says
Smells so good that I can sniff it from here :)
If I were you I'd put those wonderful strawberries (oh that's true - you live in California so you have organic, plumpy, juicy, savoury strawberries during the whole year...... That's just unfair :() into the cake, but it's a matter of personal taste! ;)
Humm I've never tried tapioca flour. Sounds like I'll have serious problems to find it :P Is it ok if I replace it with rice flour?
I share your passion for plumpy and tasty lemons :P My family comes from Sicily and I have an uncle there, that has a lemon tree in his garden; sometimes, when he comes here, he gives us 4 or 5 lemons. So little and yellow and perfumed and sweet... When they're gone, it's hard to start using again those supermarket lemons.
That's nice of you to do this tea cake thinking about your "intolerant" sister XDD And these substitution with ground almonds allowed you to create a delicious treat! Yumm!
[You know, your blog intrigued me at first sight because in my city there is a place called Bojon - no joke! It's a little town dispersed in the countryside and people from the city centre use to have some prejudices concerning Bojon people... :P When you say something strange or you do something not that bright, probably someone will ask you: "But where do you come from? Bojon??" (For my part, I come from the countryside too, so this is not that funny. :P)
Rosmarina says
Ah, sorry for my English - I'm improving.
alanna says
I love that about Bojon people-- hilarious! I lived in Bologna for a year, so Italy and Italian culture are very near and dear to my heart. Feel free to post comments in Italian!
As for the tapioca flour, you can try using rice flour, but the texture might be more crumbly. If you don't care about it being gluten free, you can just use regular wheat flour. Where do you live?
Thanks for writing!
-Alanna
Rosmarina says
Ahah yes, Bojon is fun. :) In Venetian dialect "Bo" (the semantic root of the word "Bojon") is the cow, so it's quite fun to say "Boyon", that means something like "The place of the cows".
I live in Padova (Padua). Do you know it?
Oooh reallyyy, you lived in Bologna!! Were you studying there for the University? Bologna is just lovely.
I keep writing in English (or trying to do that) because I'm a Languages student at the University... This is my first year and I'm a bit rusty in written language, so I just HAVE to improve my writing :PPP and I try to write in English as much as I can.
Anzi, sarei felicissima se tu mi indicassi gli errori più grossolani che commetto (non sentirti in obbligo, so che è estremamente noioso e anche solo scriverti in inglese è per me un esercizio utilissimo!). I miei nemici più grandi sono i tempi verbaliiiiii!! :)
Thank YOU for your kindness and for visiting my blog. :)
I love your one - have I said that before?... ;P
alanna says
Sei troppo carina!
First of all, your English is fantastic! Much, much better than my Italian, which I have sadly forgotten so much of. And your blog is beautiful as well - so creative!
I spent only one night in Padova, so I don't know it well at all. I was studying Storia dell'arte at the University of Bologna. I'm so glad that I got to experience living in Italy! Have you been to California?
Rosmarina says
No, but I'd like it soooo much!!
I've been in New York and in New Jersey (only for a short trip), cause I have some relatives there.
America attracts me so much, I hope one day I'll come there to learn a little bit of American bakery :P
Well, so you have to come in Padua and visit it!! :) Did you know that in Padua there is the third greatest square in the world (the first in Europe)?? Did you know we have the oldest botanical garden in the world?? Did you know that in Padua university used to teach Galileo Galilei? :) If one day you'll want to refresh your Italian you'll be welcome in my house! Really, you're so nice. And then you studied Storia dell'Arte, and I love storia dell'arte. ;)
Thanks so much for your compliments, I'm glad you likes Rosmarina, my alter ego! And sorry for my delay in answering you. I had a busy week: finally I had my driver's license!!
I have a lot of new posts written by you to read... Yum! :)
Sara Wiseman says
I'm going to try this for a friend's birthday. She would like a frosted cake. I was thinking of doing a mascarpone cheese frosting. Do you think that would go well with it?
(I may just have to make one for myself over the weekend, just to find out!)
Alanna says
That sounds like an excellent idea on both counts, and I'll be happy to taste test. :) Please come back and let me know how it goes!
Hiba says
hello! want to try it but do you think i can replace the butter with vegetable oil? thanks!
Alanna says
Possibly! You'll have to experiment and see how it goes. Coconut oil or Earth Balance would be other options that are closer to butter. LMK how it goes!
Mary says
Hi Alanna,
Do you know what the equivalent of 1 1/2 cups whole almonds would be in almond flour?
Thanks, & I really love your recipes and sensibility :)
Lena says
Hi Alanna, this looks delicious on it's own but I'm wondering if I would be able to use it in a filled cake recipe I used to make that used a lemon simple syrup brushed on the layers and the layers were then filled with cooked pineapple and whipped cream. The original cake was not gf or made with almond flour but this looks like it might make a lovely substitute. Thanks so much.
Alanna says
I love that idea! My one concern is that it might be difficult to cut the cake into 2 layers, but you could divide the batter in half and bake two thinner layers instead. Please let me know how it turns out if you give it a go!
Lena says
Thanks so much for your input. I'm planning to make the cake later today. Can you tell me what the gram measurement of almond flour would be?
Alanna says
It should be about 200 grams. Let me know how it goes!
Lena says
Thank you for that info! Just getting to make the cake now...in the meantime I was looking at AB and would also like to try the chiffon and the vanilla butter cake for this purpose. So many Bojon recipes, so little time 😆...definitely not complaining about that!
Alanna says
Awww what a sweet thing to say! Please let me know which you end up trying. :)
Lena says
You are welcome!
I made the almond cake recipe twice and divided each batch between two 8 inch pans. I used three of the layers for the filled cake; the fourth layer I am enjoying plain! I did not have meyer lemons so used a combination of lemons and mandarins. The cake was delicious and was a big hit at work. I am still planning to try the chiffon and vanilla butter cakes. Thanks again for much for your wonderful work and your quick responses. Much appreciated!
Alanna says
Wow, that cake sounds amazing and epic!! What lucky co-workers you have. So glad it was a hit!