Many people have tried this now and no one thinks of it as a gluten free cake. It’s just a delicious cake! Love the coconut + lemon + almond meal combination, and the springy, moist crumb. BONUS: Just about the fastest, easiest cake recipe I know.
Lemon coconut almond cake
This is a cake that is as delightfully easy to make as it is delicious to eat. Just put everything in a bowl and mix! There’s no need to whip softened butter or pull out your electric beater.
It’s been likened to the fan favourite orange cake in texture – springy yet with an appealing moistness about it. And the flavour! Adore, adore, adore the coconut lemon combination. Idea swiped from my local coffee shop where I’ve been eyeing lemon coconut cake bars for years. This is my copycat.
I don’t actually know if theirs is gluten-free. Mine is, because I’ve never come across a flour-based cake recipe with a crumb as moist as you can make using almond meal.
What you need for this lemon coconut almond cake
Here’s what you need to make this lovely cake:
Almond meal (aka ground almonds) – This is raw almonds that are blitzed into a fine powder. Easily found nowadays, sold in the dried fruit & nut section and health food section of grocery stores. Or make your own by blitzing raw, unpeeled, unsalted almonds in a powerful blender (I use a Vitamix) until it becomes a fine powder.
Almond flour can also be used (not as common here in Australia). It’s finer so gives the cake a slightly fluffier texture and less almond flavour. Hazelnut meal can also be substituted though you’ll have lovely hazelnut flavour instead of almond.
Butter – The fat in this recipe, gives it a beautiful buttery flavour.
Baking powder – This is what makes the cake rise.
Eggs – Make sure they are at room temperature so they incorporate more easily into the batter.
Coconut – Desiccated coconut which is finely shredded, unsweetened coconut. Standard shredded coconut (which is like fine strands) will work but you’ll get more coconut texture in the cake. I don’t think coconut flakes (shavings) will work in this cake, it’s not absorbent enough.
Sugar – Use caster / superfine sugar if you can because it is finer so it will dissolve easier. Otherwise, regular / granulated sugar can be used.
Vanilla extract – For flavour. Not to be confused with artificial vanilla essence which is…well, artificial. So not as nice!
Lemon – We are only using the zest in this cake, for beautiful lemon flavour. Because the zest is where all the lemon flavour is – the juice is mostly just sour.
Flaked almonds – for sprinkling on the surface. Adds lovely texture to the cake, looks good and protects the surface from browning too much. But you can skip it you don’t have it!
Salt – Standard inclusion in most of my sweet recipes these days. Just a touch, to bring out the flavours in this cake. Doesn’t make it salty!
How to make lemon coconut cake
Put everything in a bowl and MIX! How good would life be if all baking recipes were this easy??? (Though, my waistline begs to differ).
Melt the butter in a bowl using your microwave.
Wet ingredients – Whisk in all the other wet ingredients (eggs, vanilla, sugar – yes, sugar is considered a wet ingredient in baking because it liquifies when mixed with other wet ingredients).
Dry ingredients – Whisk in the almond meal, coconut, baking powder, salt and zest.
Pour it into a 20cm/8″ lined round cake pan. DO NOT skip lining the pan! Even greasing very generously is not enough to stop it from sticking to the pan, no matter how non-stick you think your pan is. (As you might have guessed, I’m speaking from first hand experience here).
Bake 40 minutes – Sprinkle the surface with almonds then bake for 40 minutes at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan) or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Cool for 1 hour before cutting to serve. I was a bit impatient in early versions and found that because the cake is quite moist, it can appear undercooked if you cut it while still warm. (But it’s not undercooked, it just looks that way if you cut while still hot!).
Serve it plain!
While some cakes I recommend serving with a dollop of cream, ice cream or other such accompaniment, this is a cake that definitely stands on its own two feet. Great flavour (lemon + coconut with a hint of almond) with a very moist crumb which is virtually impossible to replicate with flour-based cakes.
So it’s a great cake for taking places – such as for a work morning tea, book club, school bake sale. Just cut and serve. And those who are gluten-intolerant can enjoy it too. Though honestly, don’t just make this because you need a gluten-free cake. Make it because it’s just a really great cake that happens to be just about one of the easiest, quickest cake recipes I know. – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Easy Lemon Coconut Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 150g / 10 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs (55-60g/2oz each), at room temp
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar, Note 2)
- 1 1/2 cups almond meal (ground almond, Note 1)
- 1/4 tsp cooking/kosher salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup desiccated coconut (US: finely shredded unsweetened coconut)
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon zest (1 large lemon)
- 1/4 cup flaked almonds , optional (Note 3)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan). Grease a 20cm/8” round cake pan (or springform pan) with butter then line with paper.
- Melt butter – Place the butter in a large microwavable bowl and melt in the microwave. Let cool for a couple of minutes.
- Wet ingredients – Add egg, vanilla and sugar and whisk until combined.
- Dry ingredients – Add almond meal, salt, baking powder, coconut and lemon zest. Whisk until combined.
- Bake 40 minutes – Pour into pan. Sprinkle over almonds. Bake 40 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in pan then carefully turn out onto cooling rack.
- Cool at least 1 hour before cutting slices to serve. Moist enough to serve plain – doesn't need cream or anything!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Eyeing end of day remnants in a glass cabinet like it’s a big juicy steak.
Lovely, moist cake. I made individuals using a loose based individual dessert tin. 1 x qty of the recipe made 9 individual cakes, 7cm diameter x 3cm high. I baked them for 30 minutes and they were perfect, if anyone else is thinking of making individuals 🙂
My only change was to add more lemon zest. This cake is just fabulous! A favorite – I am making 2 more today! Thank you for this awesome recipe!
Nagi, so sorry I now realize my mistake!!!! Whoops and apologies!
Nagi please ignore my last comment I now realize what I’ve done!!!!!!!! Apologies.
As previous comment this cake is fab but I now notice that the transfer from cups to metric is rather bizarre – would you kindly check please. Thanks.
Further to previous comments, want to add that the cake is even better on days 2 and 3!
My second one is in the air fryer right now!
Agree!! Improves with age.
Hi Nagi, made this to the exact recipe however could not taste the lemon. Is it by any chance 1.5 tablespoons not teaspoons of lemon zest?
Cheers
So good, so easy 👌🏼
Hi Nagi. Can millet flour be substituted for the almond flour?
I was out of almond meal so sub’d with LSA (linseed, sunflower, almond meal). I haven’t tried the original recipe so I don’t have it to compare to, but we’re halfway through this one in a day! Delish!! My kids loved it more than my neighbours’ box-mix cake, so the low sugar content is still a winner with the littlies.
My lemon zest tip: when you buy lemons, zest them right away, finely chop, and put in an ice cube tray with just enough coconut oil to get them to stick together. Many recipes will just ask for either the zest or the juice and something gets wasted, but this way your lemons can still be juiced when needed. For this recipe I just used 2 cubes, & lowered the butter by 5grams at a guess. Neither adjustment made the cake awful by any measure.
Hope this helps someone 😀
Wow, I made it for afternoon tea today. Boy, it’s amazingly moist and so delicious 🙂 Thanks again Nagi, for the word-to-word recipes 🙂
Made this 10 minutes ago, still in the oven. After pouring into the pan I noticed that the butter and zest were still out. Not included in your instructions. Re-poured into bowl to add, then back into the pan. I know I should have looked, but I was following your instruction sentence by sentence.
Geoff, I made the same mistake, omitting the butter, but fortunately caught it just before mixing the wet & dry ingredients. In step 2, Nagi directs us to melt the butter in a “large microwavable bowl”, then in step 3, she directs us to “add egg,…”. She intends for us to add step 3 ingredients into the step 2 bowl. Nagi, so both of us made this mistake – and both of us are guys! Can you edit the step 3 directions to make them “guy proof”?
Even after the re-adds, it was still excellent. Although some Guy hand holding is still needed!
I’m female, and I made the same mistake, but caught it before I put into the oven. Phew! Lol
Excellent post
Delicious❤️😍
Hi Nagi
Just wanted to thank you for this awesome recipe. And no creaming or fuss….Have made it 4 times in the last week – and perfect each time. First time for a GF friend and then for a small country NSW bakery “The Paddock” in Glen Alice where 4 people asked to see ‘the baker” to tell me how wonderful this GF cake was. Shared your recipe with them – believe you should share the love – thanks again. Debbie
So quick and easy delicious. My dinner guests all loved it, and the GF guests were delighted to have a dessert they could eat.
A beautiful easy cake to serve for afternoon tea. A winner!!
Made it twice in a week, turned out perfectly but is not a deep cake. Thank you, liked by all!
Lovely, Nagi!
So very easy to make and the aroma of it baking in the oven was heavenly!
I had almond flour on hand and I think that contributed to more of an almond-forward taste as opposed to the lemon which was very, very subtle.
I also used almond slivers as that is what I also had on hand and tends to be a preference for my diners!
I can report the cake was delicious even with the substitutions that I made out of practicality. The edges almost had a chewy macaroon texture . . . delightful!
The crumb was light and reminded me of an olive oil cake texture.
An absolute winner in my book, Nagi!
Thank you again for sharing your talents and creativity!
Only 12 more sleeps until your cookbook is released in Canada . . . so exciting!
Hugs to you and the cutie, Dozer!
“Cheers” from the ‘still nippy’ Canadian Prairies!
Made twice in 4 days. Loved by all that tasted it. Soooo good and sooo easy.