Lemons are kitchen essential I am never without. I use lemons in everything – from pastas, soups, cakes, tarts and drinks. The zing that they add always reminds me of summer, even when it’s cold and wet outside. So with my love of lemons, and having made Nigella’s Chocolate Orange Cake again recently I pondered a lemon version. The very next day I gave it a go and it worked out beautifully. As much as I love the chocolate orange version (which incidentally is one of my favourite cakes) this is now one of my favourite lemon cakes.
The wonderful thing about this Lemon Cake, apart from the fact it’s so simple to prepare and everything is simply blitzed in the food processor, is the fact that it’s gluten free too. If you are on a gluten free diet this is one delicious cake you eat!
For my lemon version of this cake I opted against using store bought almond meal and made my own. It’s simple to do, and it also gives you control over the resulting texture. Want a find powder simply grind them more…want something a little chunky stop a little earlier. For this cake I went for an almond meal that was a little chunky, but that’s one of the things I enjoyed about this cake because it gave the cake more texture.
To decorate the cake I whipped up a simple blueberry frosting. Blueberries and lemons go so well together, and while I could have gone for lemon on lemon, I love the purple hue that the blueberries give the frosting. So if you are thinking of baking a cake to celebrate the weekend I hope you will give this beautiful but simple lemon cake a go.
You might also have noticed Delicious Everyday is looking a little different today. I’ve been musing over updating the design for a while, but wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to go in. After a lot of playing about I’ve come up with something I like, for now anyway, and I hope you do to. What do you think of Delicious Everyday’s mini makeover? By the way, speaking of makeovers, Delicious Everyday’s Facebook page has been updated too to utilise the new Facebook Timeline functionality. Head over and check it out and tell me what you think.
Gluten Free Lemon Cake with Blueberry Frosting
Ingredients
- 3 lemons weighing approximately 375g
- 6 eggs
- 1 teaspoon heaped of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 250 g of ground almonds
- 250 g of caster sugar
- BLUEBERRY FROSTING
- 150 g of butter at room temperature
- 3 1/2 cups of icing sugar
- 1/4 cup of pureed blueberries
Instructions
- Put the lemons in a saucepan with cold water and bring to the boil before reducing the heat and simmering for 2 hours, or until soft. Drain the water and set aside to cool. When cool, cut the lemons in half and remove any large seeds.
- Grease a 20cm springform pan and preheat the oven to 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit).
- Pulp the lemon in a food processor before adding the eggs, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, almonds and sugar and processing until you have a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Check after 40 minutes to ensure the top is not cooking too much, if so simply cover with foil.
- Let the cake cool in the tin before removing.
- To make the frosting add the butter to the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until pale and creamy. Reduce the speed to it's lowest setting and gradually add the icing sugar. Finally add the pureed blueberries and mix until combined.
- To decorate the cake smooth over a crumb coating and refrigerate until set before smoothing over another layer of the frosting.
