Holiday meals can be so heavy, it’s refreshing to have a dessert that is relatively light, like this flourless lemon almond cake. This is a classic cake recipe, if I’m not mistaken, from southern Spain. The basic ingredients are simply almond flour (finely ground blanched almonds), eggs, sugar, and lemon zest. No butter or wheat flour. The cake behaves a bit like a soufflé in that it gets most of its rise from the eggs in the batter, and then gently falls as it settles. I’ve included a bit of baking powder to help the cake maintain a bit more structure as it cools. The result is a light and tender crumb, softly sweet and lemony. You could easily twirl some raspberry sauce around it, or add a dollop of whipped cream. Enjoy!
Flourless Lemon Almond Cake Recipe
It helps to separate the eggs first, while they are cold, and then let them sit to come to room temperature as you prep the other ingredients. Eggs are easier to separate when cold, and they perform better as leavening agents when at room temperature. When whipping egg whites, make sure your equipment is perfectly clean. Any fat (or even bits of egg yolk in the whites) can keep the egg whites from properly whipping up.
Ingredients
- 4 eggs, separated into 4 egg yolks and 4 egg whites, room temperature
- 2 Tbsp lemon zest, packed
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 cup (100 g) white sugar, divided 1/4 cup (50 g) and 1/4 cup (50 g)
- 1 1/2 cup (170 g) finely ground almond flour*
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (make sure your baking powder is fresh!)
- 1 teaspoon white or cider vinegar
- Pinch of salt
- Powdered sugar for sprinkling
* If almond flour is not available at your market, you can grind up blanched, slivered almonds in a food processor until finely ground. I would start with a little more than 1 1/3 cups, perhaps 1 1/2 cups. Our local Whole Foods carries a Bob's Red Mill brand of finely ground almond flour which is what we used for this recipe.
Method
1 Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 °C). Place a round of parchment paper on the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan, and grease it and the sides of the pan with butter or cooking spray.
2 In a large bowl, beat together with a wooden spoon the egg yolks, lemon zest, and 1/4 cup sugar until smooth.
3 In a separate bowl, whisk together the almond flour, ground cardamom, and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture and beat until smooth.
4 With an electric mixer with a very clean bowl and clean whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, starting on low speed and gradually increasing the speed. When bubbles start to form, add a pinch of salt and the teaspoon of vinegar (both the salt and the vinegar will help the beaten egg whites maintain better structure, as will the sugar in the next step). As the egg whites begin to increase in volume, sprinkle in the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, a little at a time, as you continue to beat the eggs whites. Beat until soft peaks form.
5 Fold the beaten egg whites into the almond mixture a large scoopful at a time. You won't get much lift with the first third of the egg whites, but as you add more, you'll be able to gently fold in the whites in such a way as to create a light batter.
6 Gently scoop the batter into a the prepared springform pan and place in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake helping it to separate from the side of the pan. Release the springform pan sides, and gently move the cake (on parchment) to a cake serving plate. Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar before serving.
Yield: Serves 8.
Could you use lemon juice instead of vinegar to boost the lemon flavor?
I love your recipes!
Judith
mmmm this looks so yumyumyum! Id love it!
Your recipes are delightful! I know I will be cooking up a storm for my family, knowing them very well they will enjoy every morsel..
Happy Holidays and all the best!
I need a GF dessert for Christmas Day and this looks perfect! Have you tried it with orange instead of lemon?
I have! I did something similar very recently, but used whole oranges that I boiled first, then pureed in the food processor. I used the recipe from Comfy Belly for Valencia Orange Cake. I’m going to do Elise’s recipe for New Year’s.
“You could easily twirl some raspberry sauce around it, or add a dollop of whipped cream.” — Elise
Why not both!?! Sounds wonderful.
Thanks for the new features on the site, especially the ability to print all or some comments. Any way to also print the lead in paragraphs to the actual recipe — your little stories about the dish that are under the top photo? That would be great. Love your site, Elise. You and your team do a terrific job!
Elise, thought you might want to know about a bug in the system. I just posted my comment a few minutes ago, but it shows as “8 hours ago.” Something’s a little off.
Have a wonderful holiday, one and all!
Wow. This dessert just calls my name. Yummy.
I was very excited to see this entry, as I have been gluten free for over a year now. but then I saw the almond flour. I am ridiculously intolerant of almonds too. woe is me. any other flours i could use?
Are you allergic to all nuts? If not try a different ground nut or look into a gluten free flour mix to sub.
This looks divine. Do you think it might hold up for baking as cupcakes or mini-cupcakes?
Do you know whether this would work with xylitol. Hubbie is diabetic so no sugar for him.
Don’t know about artificial sweeteners. I don’t think it would work with the egg whites.
I’ve used xlitol to make meringues in the past and they came out fine!
Can we say “yes”?!? This is such a great idea… I wonder if I could substitute the sugar with agave nectar to make it adaptable to paleo? I am sharing this on Facebook, since I have a lot of gluten-free friends :)
Possibly, though I don’t know how agave would work to help the egg whites with structure.
You might want to try coconut sugar. It is low glycemic and behaves a lot like sugar….
I can’t thank you enough – I needed a cake recipe to bring to the family Christmas gathering and here’s a perfect recipe!
Thanks for delicious recipe, and for the excellent instructions for the meringue. One question though – when and where do we add in the cardamom?
Hi Carl, with the almond flour, thank you for pointing out that that step was missing! It’s now fixed.
Do you think it would be possible to skip the baking powder (so I could make it for Passover)? Or would it be way too dense?
Thanks!
Hi Gayle, yes you could easily skip the baking powder. Most similar recipes I’ve found do not add baking powder. I like the addition because it helps give the cake just a little more structure.
Oh, I love cakes like this! A bit lighter and not TOO sweet. This looks lovely!
Could this cake be made a day or so ahead of time and still be good, or does it need to be served the same day it was made? or … could you make it ahead of time and freeze it?
Thanks!
Great questions all. I don’t know! I’ve only ever made it and served it right away.
It’d probably stay good if stored in the refrigerator for only a day, but dessert right out of the oven is usually the best. You’d have to eat cold cake… Unless you heated it, which might ruin the cake (I’m not sure).
This cake looks really nice. Funnily enough I’ve just popped an orange torte in the oven which doesn’t use flour – just ground almonds!
what kind of vinegar? White? Cider? Wine?
White or cider. I’ve now clarified that point in the recipe. Thanks!
right now I am trying my best to enjoy my food and desert without gaining too much weight. this is the perfect recipe. I will be preparing this tomorrow night. thanks so much for sharing it! xx. gigi. food and beauty blogger @ http://www.gigikkitchen.blogspot.com
This recipe has a lot of potential…perhaps the fresh cardoman powder I used was to fresh, it could be cut in half…it dominated the expensive almond flour (same brand as suggested) …a major upset…my meyer lemon shined…but perhaps too much, using meyers can dominate.
Sorry the almond cake didn’t taste….but the texture in this recipe was fantastic. Remake!
I just took this cake out of the oven, and I’ll bet it tastes delicious. But… A 9-inch pan is too big. The cake is 3/4 inch tall, and it looks taller in the photo. Technique wasn’t the problem. I’m an experienced baker, and I know how to beat and fold in egg whites. And I used extra-large eggs. I really do think a smaller pan is necessary.
Tried it. Really good.
Mmmm — came out delicious. I think my springform pan was bigger than yours so the cake wasn’t as tall, but the flavor is very very nice and texture is perfect. When my egg-and-almond-flour seemed more pasty than smooth, I was worried. But once all the egg whites were incorporated, the batter worked out fine. Still thick, but your description of scooping rather than pouring encouraged me that I was on the right track. Thank you!
Just finished dessert, and this cake was a hit with all. Excellent directions. Thanks.
Delicious! Perfect dessert after a heavy meal.
thanks, Again!
This looks incredible! Can’t wait to try it!
I made this for Christmas and it was devoured by my son who is wheat-free. I loved it too!
So this recipe looks more like a cake from Northern Spain called a Torta de Santiago which is my absolute favorite thing to get when I visit my grandparents. Why it never occurred to me that I could make my own I don’t know but I definitely want to try it and see if it’s what I think it is. I’m sooooo excited!
Funny, I was going to say that it was a gató, from Mallorca. Maybe every part of Spain has a version.
This cake turned out wonderfully and was the perfect closer to my Christmas meal, not too heavy or sweet. It was also tasty with cranberry sauce.
I substituted Splenda for the sugar and it came out great. Not only is it tasty, now it is super low carb. Great recipe!!
I love your recipes, but since I have recently been eating gluten free, dairy free, yeast free, and sugar free, I haven’t been able to make a lot of them. My mom and I made this today, making a few modifications, and I am so happy to say it turned out great! We used powdered stevia and to counteract the extra dryness that seems to go along with stevia, we added an extra egg. We also reduced the cooking time to 25 minutes and since we couldn’t find our spring form pan we used a bunt cake with a removable center. Our first successul gluten free/sugar free baking experience!
Elise, the Red Mill almond flour was out of stock, and I see that it’s almost $10, so I was wondering what your thoughts are on the ground almond meal that’s sold at Trader Joe’s. I would think the Red Mill flour is a finer texture, but not sure if that will be a big difference in the outcome. Should I use the TJ’s product as is, or maybe toss it in the food processor for a few seconds, or just wait til I can find almond flour somewhere else. I want to make the cake next week. Thanks. Looks so wonderful!
Thank you for this recipe. Two of my kids are gluten-free, and I was wondering what to make for Christmas dessert. We made this cake and it was wonderful!
Made this last night – exact recipe. Hubby and kids loved it and so did I – thank you Elise! I found your site this year and have truly enjoyed going there to look for specific recipes, and just to read for enjoyment. Thank you for such a quality site. You are my ‘break’ or ‘treat’ when I have worked all day and need a rest.
I made this for a New Year’s dinner, and it was awesome! I’m new to baking, so I was concerned when the egg yolk and flour mixture made a dough ball, then had to fold in the egg whites. I thought I had messed up, but it started to come together finally. Served it with fresh whipped cream and raspberries, and it was heavenly. Love your recipes! Everyone thinks I’m a great cook, but I’m just good at following directions for your recipes! Happy New Year!
Yum. Yum. Yum. We made it and it was awesome. Although, we had two small changes because of ingredients.
1) only probably used about 1.5 tbsp lemon rind. It’s labor intensive and requires a lot of lemons for the 2.
2) didn’t have ground cardamon, so used 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/8 tsp ground cloves (as found on a substitution site).
Anyway, with both of those it turned out AWESOME! So yummy, and definitely a recipe I’ll make again.
I plan to make this for my friend’s birthday party next Saturday. Before I buy the springform pan, I’m wondering if there is an answer to the 9-inch vs. smaller pan question. It looks as though some may have found the 9-inch pan to be too wide for substantial rise to the cake?
Hi, Elise! I love how light this Italian-style coffee cake is… I’ve just read Naomi question about substituting agave nectar for sugar. I hope you do not mind that I answer her question. Yes, it is possible to make this cake using agave nectar instead of sugar but the cake will be neither as light as this nor as pale in color. Other things to consider:
1- For each cup of white sugar replaced, use 2/3 of a cup of agave plus reduce eggs amount by 1/4 (instead of 4 eggs, use 3) so the cake structure will be preserved.
2- Agave nectar (syrup) will may cause baked items to brown more quickly. Because of this, oven temperature should be reduced by 25°F and baking time increased slightly.
Thanks for sharing the recipe with us!!! Hoping to make the original recipe soon.
Made this a few days ago for a potluck and it was scrumptious, with rave reviews! There was one piece left over after serving everyone, and instead of saying “does anyone want this last piece.” I quietly packed it up to take it home. Good call! It was even better the next day. I’ll definitely make this again.
I agree with someone above that 2 tbs. of lemon peel is quite a bit of work, and a lot of lemons. But I think even a little more would have been good — the lemon taste was quite subtle and a little more rind would have increased the lemon flavor, but a little less might make the lemon too subtle.
I was surprised there was no lemon juice in the recipe. Would that make the cake too wet? I’d love to try it with lemon juice, but would hate to ruin the cake. Anyone have an answer to this? Thanks.
Great cake! I made this yesterday and I love it, yum-o!
This cake looks so yummy! The combination of so much lemon zest with the almonds just sounds delicious!
Fantastic!!! I made this yesterday for family dinner with my GF daughter. Added some raspberries on top, with some raspberry syrup. Everyone (even my GF hating son-in-law) loved it!!! Like most GF baked goods, it’s not “tall”, but the texture was better than most GF cakes we’ve tried. Definitely will do this one again!
THANKS!!
This cake is heaven! Thank you so much for sharing recipe.
I made this last night and it is really delicious!
This sounds wonderful! I will probably try it with coconut sugar or just a little bit of honey instead of white sugar.