This cake is delicious: moist, tender, and perfectly lemony. I couldn’t taste the olive oil, but I think it adds some hard-to-pinpoint depth to the overall flavor of the cake, and it’s nice to know you’re baking with a healthy, dairy-free cooking fat.
The glaze is cashew-based, but I worked hard to make honey and lemon the prominent flavors, so I think people who don’t know cashews are the main ingredient won’t be able to figure it out.
I’ve made this lemon olive oil cake countless times for dinner parties, birthdays, and all manner of holidays, and it never fails to please. No one can tell that it’s gluten free, grain free, dairy free, and paleo friendly, and everyone is surprised to hear it’s made from extra virgin olive oil. I hope you’ll give it a try!
Chag sameach and happy Easter, if you’re celebrating one of those holidays, and happy (finally) spring if you’re not.
Lemon Olive Oil Cake
This grain-free lemon olive oil cake is easy to whip up and is perfect for feeding a crowd. It's my go-to paleo cake recipe!
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 1/2 cups lightly packed almond flour
- 3/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest*
For the glaze:
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice*
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup cashews, soaked in water for 1-2 hours and drained
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest*
- 2-3 tablespoons water (or more as needed)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and thoroughly grease a large (12-cup capacity) bundt pan with olive oil. Place the pan on a baking sheet.
- To make the cake, whisk together the almond flour, tapioca starch, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together all the wet ingredients and the lemon zest in a medium bowl or two-cup measuring cup. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir until well-combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, and put the pan (along with the baking sheet that's underneath it--this is just for ease of transport) in the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the middle is set and a toothpick comes out almost clean (a few small crumbs are okay, but no goo). Cool for about 30 minutes in the pan, then carefully run a thin knife around the inner and outer edges of the cake to loosen it. You can try to invert it onto a plate at this point if it seems loose, but it might need a little bit more cajoling. If it does, place it in the freezer for 30-40 minutes, then dip the bottom of the pan into a bowl of very hot water for about 30 seconds. Invert the cake onto a plate, and it should slide right out.
- To make the glaze, combine all ingredients in your blender, or in a large bowl if you plan to use an immersion blender. Process until smooth, adding water as necessary to achieve a pourable consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake (I transferred my glaze to a ziptop bag, snipped off a corner, and drizzled it on from the bag). Slice and serve!
Notes
*I got enough juice and zest for both the cake and the glaze from two lemons, but I'd recommend having a third lemon on hand just in case.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 pieces Serving Size: 1 pieceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 355Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 18gCholesterol: 47mgSodium: 167mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 3gSugar: 25gProtein: 8g
The nutrition label provided is an estimate for informational purposes only and may not be accurate. I am not a nutritionist or medical professional.
Can you substitute corn starch for tapioca starch? Would it be the same amount? I am not finding tapioca starch at the store but they have cornstarch and coconut flour.
How do I thicken the glaze? It comes out a bit too watery without adding any water.
The cashews thicken it. You could add more of those.
I made this with some blood orange-infused olive oil, and it was fantastic. Thank you for the recipe! I’m still learning how to bake grain-free, and this was my first successful cake.
Wow, this cake is phenomenal! I substituted potato starch for tapioca starch and used avocado oil in place of olive oil. I didn’t have a bundt pan for passover, so I put parchment inside a cake pan. Came out perfect!
I’m so happy you liked it! I’ve made it with avocado oil, too—it’s a great alternative to olive oil here. And I’m glad to know that potato starch works instead of tapioca. Happy Passover!
Wow! I made this for a birthday party as a test for two Seders coming up this weekend. Rave reviews! And I personally crave it and can’t wait to make it again. I plan to try doubling the recipe to make a bigger cake. It fed everyone, but it didn’t fill up my pan or look quite as impressive as I was hoping. I will let you know how that works out. But this is a great recipe, unusually lemony and so tasty.
As for getting it out of the pan, Google all the tips about removing cakes from Bundt pans and do your best. If there are mishaps, glue it back together with the delicious glaze. That’s what I did, and you could not tell.
I’m so glad you liked it, Lori! Thank you so much for coming back to let us know how it went 🙂
Hi Becky,
Check the first sentence of your second to last paragraph. It says that your cake “never fails to disappoint”, which I am sure is not what you meant. Easy to fix! I am a big proofreader (-:
I am planning to make your cake for two Seders this year. It looks delicious.
Lori R.
Fixed it. Thank you so much!
The cake looked beautiful in the pan and that’s where it remained. IF you knew of a problem releasing the cake, I don’t why it wasn’t mentioned at the very beginning. The cake never released even with freezing and setting it in hot water. What a waste.
Hi Patty! I’m sorry you had trouble with the cake sticking. That’s a common problem with Bundt cakes across recipes, as you’ll discover if you google “how to get Bundt cakes out of the pan”. However, in the dozens of times I’ve made this cake, I’ve never been unable to get it out–that’s why I am confident in the method I mention in the post. Several readers have made it without problems as well. That being said, a lot depends on the pan, exactly how well it was greased, and the timing. I don’t use the “grease and flour” method because regular flour is obviously not paleo, but just did a little more research after seeing your comment and found a suggestion (from King Arthur!) to dust the pan with toasted almond flour instead of wheat flour: https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2017/01/22/prevent-bundt-cakes-sticking/ Maybe you can try that next time!
can i make this a day before i’m going to serve it? should it be kept in refrigerator? ice it ahead or last minute?
You can make it a day ahead and keep it at room temp. It’s best to glaze the cake right before serving.
My glaze came out much to liquid.. I was confused about your directions. Use 1/2 cup of cashews, soak in water 1-2hrs and drain. What is the amount of water you soak it in and what is the amount of liquid do you use to mix into the honey Lemon mixture? Did I mis understand…? (btw, I used macadamia milk as a substitute for the “ cashew liquid.. because I did not have the cashews in hand.. at it was right before the Seder when I found your Delors recipe!!)
Hi Melanie! The cashews should be soaked and drained completely–no soaking water is used in the glaze itself. There’s no specific amount of water for soaking; you just need enough to cover the nuts. (Soaking beforehand helps the cashews blend more easily.) The only liquids added to the glaze are the lemon juice, honey, and 2-3 tablespoons water, or more as needed. If you didn’t have cashews, what did you use in the glaze? Without nuts it definitely won’t work. Hope you liked the cake part and that you’re having a good Passover so far!
Hi Rebecca – this looks perfect as I’m looking for a refined sugar and dairy free sponge recipe to bake for my daughters 5th birthday on Tuesday! 🙂 do you know if I could just take out the lemon juice so that it is a vanilla sponge? (She has requested quite adamantly that it should just be vanilla flavour!) 🙂 or would it need something instead of the lemon juice do you think? Thank you so much for your help! 🙂
Hi Stacey! Hmmm, I am not sure how that would turn out. The lemon juice reacts with the baking soda here to help the cake rise, so you might need to use baking powder instead of baking soda if you leave out the lemon juice. Also, the lemon provides a strong flavor that masks the taste of the olive oil and honey. If you leave out the lemon, I worry it would taste like olive oil and/or honey instead of vanilla.
Since it’s for your daughter’s birthday, I would recommend saving this recipe to experiment with at another time and going with one that’s specifically for vanilla cake. Maybe one of these would work?
http://www.theroastedroot.net/paleo-vanilla-cake/
http://acleanbake.com/grain-free-classic-yellow-cake/
I have some blood orange olive oil I got as a gift that I’d love to use. That should work just fine here, just adding a more citrusy rather than distinct lemon taste, right?
That should be fine! I bet it will taste great with blood orange olive oil! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
It turned out great! Everyone loved it!And is smelled pretty amazing too 🙂
Yay, so glad you enjoyed it! I actually made this again yesterday, too :). One of my all-time favorites.
Can I substitute walnut flour for almond flour in this recipe?
It’s worth a try! I’ve never baked with walnut flour so I can’t say how it will turn out. Have you used it in other cakes or similar recipes?
Yes, I’ve made muffins with walnut flour. They taste and hold up well.
Great! I’ll have to try that!
Your cake looks so yummy. I’d love to try it, but I was wondering do you think coconut flour would work instead of almond flour? Also would flax eggs work as a replacement for the eggs?
Hi Raj, thanks for your comment! Coconut flour will probably NOT work as a one-to-one substitute for the almond flour because they’re very different–coconut flour absorbs a ton of moisture, and recipes that use it need much more liquid and/or much less flour. I actually don’t bake with coconut flour anymore because I discovered I have a coconut allergy, and I have never really baked with flax eggs. Are you looking for a vegan, nut-free cake? This one looks interesting: http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2014/05/food-re-networked-series-lemon-cake-vegan-grain-free/
Thanks for the advice and link to the other recipe. It does sound good, so I’ll give it a go :). Shame I can’t try your recipe.
Definitely want to try this recipe. I posted on my Food Huntress fb page and pinned it!
Thank you so much, Linda!
I just made this cake-Wow delicious:)))) thanks so much. The conformation was sharing it with my co-workers who do not particularly care about the health features and are not gluten free…they loved it. The outside chewiness and the inside moist and lemony sold them:))
I am so glad you and your coworkers liked it! 🙂
Hi Becky. Do you by chance have the nutritional analysis for this recipe?
Hi JB! No, I don't count calories or calculate the nutritional breakdown of my recipes, but you could input the ingredients into a free calculator like this one at SparkPeople:
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Thanks, I'll try that
The Up-dated recipe shows no Cream of Tartar in the ingredients. Is This correct??
Yes! It doesn't need the COT because the lemon juice reacts with the baking soda 🙂
What a lovely cake! I love almond flour + lemon and this is perfect for any day of the year, not just passover. I'm interested in the tapioca starch – does that affect the texture of the cake much? I always cringe a little with "starch" ingredients because I'm afraid it's going to make the finished product sort of chalky.
Hi Nora! I almost always add either tapioca starch or coconut flour (or both) to baked goods made with almond flour, since I find that it helps lighten the texture and make it more similar to regular cake. Since I had a couple of bad reactions to coconut, I've been using just almond & tapioca, and I don't find the results chalky as long as the ratio is right. This cake has more than three times as much almond flour as tapioca, and didn't taste starchy at all. I know what you mean about the word "starch", though–maybe I should list it as tapioca flour instead, since they're both names for the same thing 🙂
Hi There! I have just cooked this cake, using my bundt pan for the first time! Mine is a six-cup bundt pan I think, and this mixture filled it nicely. It came right up to the top while baking and remained quite flat, which was nice. I did a mix of half baking powder and half bi-carb, as I tend not to do straight bi-carb in anything because it's so bitter, and was able to use up two old lemons I had sitting around for the juice and zest! I also used arrowroot starch instead of tapioca, although some people argue that the two are in fact the same. I cooked mine for the full thirty minutes, just to be sure, and also used some leftover vanilla and cream cheese icing I had in the fridge, instead of doing the glaze. I followed your instructions about letting the cake cool in the tin, and after 30 mins of cooling I was able to flip it out onto a cooling rack without any troubles whatsoever. I didn't even have to use a knife to loosen it. I think this is because I greased the pan so well with butter, though. All in all, a lovely, simple, lemon cake recipe! Thank you! 😀
You're welcome! Thank you so much for the wonderful, detailed feedback. I am so glad you enjoyed the cake!
Looks so delicious! Love all those flavors!
Thank you, Maria!
What a pretty cake! I've been having fun playing around with almond flour lately, so it's nice to see it used here!
Thank you, Taylor! Almond flour is my favorite thing to bake with.
This is beautiful!! I can't tell that it has sunken in the middle at all either. Love that glaze!
Thank you, Laura!
This looks great and I will, happily, make it whether there is a valley in it or not!
🙂 Thanks, Betsy!
I love the photos … and this cake was so delicious!
Thank you! 🙂