Gluten free Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe
The appeal of this cake lies in its fluffy texture and clean, uncluttered flavour. All the ingredients need to be very fresh and you must work quickly or the mixture becomes stodgy and the lemon loses its zing. It’s delicious as it is, or you can warm it and serve it with crème fraîche and a dollop of homemade lemon curd – transporting you to lemon heaven.
This recipe is taken from our Honeybuns Gluten-Free Baking book.
Makes 1 x 450 g/1 lb loaf cake
Cook for 45-50 minutes
Store for 5 days in airtight tin. Freezes well.
Ingredients
175 g/6 oz butter, plus extra, melted, for brushing
25 g/1 oz tapioca flour, plus extra for dusting
Finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
150 g/5½ oz granulated sugar
60 g/2¼ oz ground almonds
40 g sorghum flour
25 g/3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
25 g/3 tbsp polenta
1 tsp lemon oil
For the topping
50 g/1¾ oz granulated sugar (plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling)
Juice of ½ lemon
Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas 3.
Line a 450 g/1 lb loaf tin with baking parchment, then brush with melted butter and dust with tapioca flour.
Melt the butter with the lemon zest, but don’t let it get too hot. Stir well, then add the lemon juice and stir again.
Crack the eggs into a large mixing bowl. Add the baking powder, sugar, almonds, tapioca flour, sorghum flour and cornflour, polenta and lemon oil.
Add the melted butter and zest mixture. Using an electric hand mixer, begin beating at low speed, then at high speed until the mixture is smooth like a batter and a rich yellow colour.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and bang it firmly on a work surface to get rid of air pockets.
Bake for 30 minutes, then check and cover with baking parchment if it is getting too dark.
Bake for a further 15-20 minutes, until springy to the touch. A flat cake skewer will come out clean when the cake is ready. It is quite normal for this cake to crack open along the top.
Leave the cake in its tin and, while it’s still very warm, pierce all over with a skewer – don’t be frightened of damaging it; you can go three-quarters of the way down into the cake. The more holes, the juicier the cake will be.
To make the topping, stir the sugar into the lemon juice and spoon over the warm cake. Use the back of the spoon to smooth the syrup over the top of the cake – this will help it seep into the holes. Leave for 10 minutes, then sprinkle the top of the cake with granulated sugar. Leave the cake to cool completely before you take it out of its tin.
For extra ooh-la-la’ spread the cake generously with lemon curd once cooled.
You can also Compost the eggshells and lemon skins.
This recipe is taken from Honeybuns Gluten-Free Baking by Emma Goss-Custard, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography Cristian Barnett. For further information about this and other recipes from our book, do take a look at our Book FAQ’s.
If you like this recipe, why not try our Amondi cookie recipe?
