This coconut flour lemon cake is a low-carb, grain-free, and dairy-free version of a classic round lemon cake. It is infused with lemony flavour in the forms of acidic and bright lemon juice, and fragrant lemon zest.
How to Make Coconut Flour Lemon Cake
Start making this gluten free coconut flour lemon cake recipe by preheating your oven to 350°F. Next, you can grease an 8-inch, round cake pan with olive oil until it is thoroughly coated. While olive oil has a strong flavour, it is delicious in combination with lemon and works very well here. Later on, olive oil will go into the base of the lemon cake as well, and it helps keep the cake nice and fluffy.
To make unmolding later even easier, place a circle of parchment paper into the bottom of the greased pan.
Because this is a quick-to-make one-bowl batter, it is helpful to gather all your necessary ingredients before starting to mix up the lemon cake.
Mixing the Batter
1. To start making the batter for this lemon cake, simply whisk the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl. I like to start by mixing the plant milk and lemon juice to make a sort of dairy-free buttermilk. The add the remaining gluten free ingredients like whole eggs, maple syrup or alternative, vanilla, and olive oil. For the plant milk, you may use whatever you like such as almond milk, soy milk, or cashew milk. However, if you are fine with dairy, you can include dairy milk instead.
2. You won't require a separate bowl for this coconut flour cake recipe as you can whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. These ingredients are coconut flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to weigh the coconut flour or measure correctly by gently spooning the flour into the measuring cup. Select "Metric" in the recipe box below for weight measurement in grams. Never dip the measuring cup into the flour, as this will compress it and you end up with way too much flour and a very dry cake batter.
3. At this point, whisk until the batter doesn't contain any lumps. It might be beneficial to whisk in the dry ingredients a little at a time to prevent the formation of lumps in the first place and create a smoother batter as well.
Baking the Coconut Flour Lemon Cake
4. To bake the gluten free lemon cake, pour the batter into the prepared pan. The batter will be loose enough to spread out in the pan on its own, so you won't have to smooth it out with a spatula.
The lemon cake should only require a total bake time of 25 to 30 minutes. You will know it is done when the edges turn golden brown, the top is opaque rather than shiny, and springs back to the touch when you press it. You can also insert a skewer or toothpick into it to see if wet or dry crumbs come out on it. If the crumbs are wet, you will know that the cake will need more time.
Unmolding the Lemon Cake
Once the gluten free cake is out of the oven, you should let it cool for at least 20 minutes. This will ensure the cake will have enough time to set up a little before you attempt to unmold it. The cake is quite delicate when it comes out of the oven and may break or crack if you attempt to unmold it too soon. You may want to run a spatula around the edges to loosen the cake from the pan before flipping it as well.
When unmolding the cake, I recommend that you place a large plate, wire rack or baking sheet on top of the cake pan before inverting it. Then, if all goes well, gravity should gently allow the cake to slip onto the plate or sheet and you can promptly remove the cake pan. If you used a parchment paper circle and it came out with the cake, gently peel it off the bottom of the lemon cake. Now, place your serving platter on the cake and invert again and remove the other plate or baking sheet. This way the lighter top side of the cake will be on top.
Serving the Coconut Flour Lemon Cake
This lemon coconut flour cake recipe is delicious on its own as the lemon flavour is so robust. However, if you would like to make it a little fancier, you could dust it with some icing sugar or serve it with a little sweetened coconut cream.
Another option would be to add a glaze to the cooled cake. To make a lemon glaze, you can mix powdered sugar with lemon juice until smooth before drizzling over the cake. The glaze will set at room temperature so you can leave it on the counter for some time before you cut the cake into slices. If you include the glaze, other optional garnishes would be some toasted coconut, sprinkles, or candied lemon peel as the glaze would help them adhere to the cake.
Do I Need to Use Fresh Lemons in this Cake?
While you may be inclined to use storebought lemon juice in your homemade baked goods or this cake with lemon because it has a longer shelf life, fresh lemons are irreplaceable in this cake. Their juice has just the right brightness and acidity to lift up the flavour of the cake, whereas storebought lemon juice can have a duller taste.
Moreover, this cake with lemon calls for lemon zest, which is essential for adding the sweet, fruity fragrance of lemon, which is not easy to achieve when you use lemon juice alone. A lot of the lemon flavor in lemon juice deteriorates when heated while baking. Whereas the citrus oils in the lemon peel are more heat stable, providing the cake with a rich lemon flavor even after baking.
If you buy a bag of lemons and have some left over, you can use them in many other dishes. Lemons are perfect for dessert recipes like cakes, cookies, quick breads, lemon curd, and lemon posset. They are also great in savoury dishes including dressings, marinades, fish dishes, pasta, hummus, and much more. It is always wonderful to have fresh lemons on hand when there are so many delicious culinary uses for them.
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RECIPE UPDATE MAY 2022:
To address several commenters whose cake and batter ended up too try, I have done some further side-by-side testing of different coconut flours and realized that certain brands (like the common Bob's Red Mill) seem extra thirsty and liquid absorbing. To adjust for this variance, I have reduced the coconut flour amount to ⅔ cups (from 1 cup) and changed the sweetener to ⅓ cup maple syrup to provide extra liquid (from ½ cup granulated sugar). If this recipe has worked well for you preciously with your coconut flour, you can keep using the original measurements.
If you have a less absorbent coconut flour, you may need to add anywhere from 2-5 more tablespoons of coconut flour. Once you finished stirring up the batter and it is still very thin and runny, stir in 1 more tablespoon of coconut flour at a time until the batter has thickened but is still somewhat pourable.
I personally love A de Coco brand coconut flour - a Mexican brand unfortunately not yet widely available in the US. It seems finer/less gritty to me and has a not as crazy rate of liquid absorbency.
Coconut Flour Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk or regular milk
- â…› cup lemon juice
- 4 eggs
- â…“ cup olive oil
- ⅓ cup maple syrup or sugar-free alternative or ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- â…” cup coconut flour + 2-5 tablespoon extra flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Grease the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with olive oil. For easier unmolding, place a parchment paper circle into the bottom of the pan.
- Stir together the almond milk and lemon juice, and set aside to thicken for a few minutes. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, olive oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and the almond milk + lemon juice mix.
- Then whisk in the coconut flour, baking powder, salt and the lemon zest.
- Whisk until the batter becomes smooth and free of lumps. Depending on your brand of coconut flour, if your batter is still very thin and runny, add more coconut flour 1 tablespoon at a time (anywhere from 2-5 tablespoons) until it is thicker but still somewhat pourable***
- Then transfer the batter into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake the coconut flour lemon cake for about 25 to 30 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before unmolding and slicing it.
Susan Loxton
How long would you say it stays fresh in the fridge? Is this freezable? Love the recipe!
Addy
Did not cook after 30 minutes
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Hi Addy, I'm sorry the cake didn't cook in 30 minutes. Ovens can vary in temperature so sometimes baked recipes may need more time. Were you able to get the cake baked with a little extra time in the oven?
carol
Wow love this cake, great texture, will be making again, can see potential for a variety of flavours
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks for letting us know you made this with success! 🙂
Peony
Great recipe! I’ve made this a few times now and it always turns out great, even with a few minor substitutions.
It also worked great as a batter for an upside down cake. I poured it over a rhubarb / sugar / (faux) butter mix, it took an extra 10+ minutes to bake but turned out fabulous!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
The rhubarb version of this cake sounds divine! Thanks for your review, Peony! 🙂
Ebony
Hello,
Is it possible to substitute with coconut milk, coconut oil and dates instead of maple syrup?
Thank you
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Hi Ebony, yes, you should be able to replace the almond milk and olive oil with coconut milk and coconut oil, although they will change the flavour of the cake.
I don't believe the recipe has been tested with dates as a sweetener but you may be able to get away with using date paste instead of maple syrup. Normally, when you substitute maple syrup with date paste, you should use double the date paste. Date paste often results in drier baked goods so expect a drier cake if you try the recipe with date paste.
Jann
Hi! Any idea how to count the carbs if using monk fruit instead of sugar please?
Regina | Leelalicious
Using sugar-free sweetener (like the monkfruit you mention) changes the nutrition facts to approximately 102 cals, 1g sugar, 10 carbs, 5g net carbs (after deducting 5g fiber) per serving
DMarie
This is such a delicious recipe! I bake often with coconut flour, and this is one of the very few desserts I've made that is actually light and moist! I was pleasantly surprised. I ended up making a "poke cake" out of it, since I had more glaze than I felt I needed. This made the cake even more moist and flavorful. Thanks for a great recipe!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks for the lovely review! We are so glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
Carol
Has anyone tried using lemon infused EO? I love it on my salads!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
This sounds delicious, Carol! How do you make your lemon-infused olive oil?
Carol
I bought mine from Amazon
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks for letting me know! I will have to try it. 🙂
Nadia
I really enjoyed this cake. Very light texture and the flavour reminded me almost of a cake donut with lemon glaze. I used coconut sugar and added a few drops of lemon oil for extra lemon flavour. I baked in a 9" springform pan as I did not have an 8" round cake pan. Having done so my cake is much thinner than yours pictured. I did put an icing on, made up of lemon juice, zest and icing sugar and it looks lovely like a torte. I can see how it would look great topped with some blueberries when in season. Thank you for the recipe, I will definitely be making it again!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thank you for your lovely review, Nadia!
Cme61
Sounds delicious. You suggest weighing flour but I can’t seem to find the flour weight in your recipe. Please advise
Regina | Leelalicious
In the recipe box next to the ingredients select "Metric" instead of the default "US customary" for the measurements in grams.
Linda Goetz
Awesome taste will make it again
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
I'm so glad you liked this cake, Linda!
Millie
I’m going to make this cake. It’s low sodium and not too high in sugar , I’ll control the ingredients. Thank you for sharing. I’ll come back to let you know how it turned out!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks so much, Millie! Looking forward to learning your results.
Barbshowell
Your pop ups on this page make scanning, and probably following, this recipe gawd awful. Feels like asking a 2 yo to help in the kitchen!!
Regina | Leelalicious
I am sorry to hear you had this experience. There shouldn't be any popups aside from a one time request to sign up for the newsletter. After that, this popup should never appear again to return visitors. Is that the popup you mean or did anything else come up for you. If so, please let me know and I will have to talk to my ad network about this to try and resolve that.
Debi C.
Today is baking day at my house.
Oh, I can hardly wait for this cake to cool! My kitchen smells delicious!
Olive oil in cake----I was resistant but I followed your recipe exactly, Regina.
I used a springform cake pan and the cake looks beautiful sitting on the counter, cooling off.
I used the metric measurements for the ingredients. I have a battery operated scale that measures grams surprisingly well. I find that successful baking in the subtropics is a hit and miss endeavor for me, but using grams instead of cups or teaspoons, etc. seems to be a more reliable method for success.
I used Allulose instead of sugar or maple syrup. I used Bob's RedMill Coconut flour that I found at LaComer in PV, Mexico. I had frozen "ice cube" lemon juice---I did not get an accurate gram count on that, and I think the little extra weight of lemon juice was not a good idea.
However, the cake baked perfectly---a beautiful sunny yellow surface with a tinge of golden brown around the edges.
OK, dinner is finished and we just had some lemon cake. It was very moist. Very moist. I think it was that extra gram or two of lemon juice and a few large Costco eggs that may have contributed to that. To me, it was a little too moist. We could not tell that it was baked with coconut flour. I did not have any powdered fake sugar, so we skipped that, but I think I will make some of the powdered sugar and lemon "drizzle" for the cake for my husband's benefit and reserve a few "sugarless" slices for myself. Great recipe. Easy to make. I think this would be a good cake to bring if you have to bring something to share at a potluck.
I think I am having a good baking day!
Thanks for your foolproof recipes---as long as I do what you say, they come out perfectly!
I look forward to trying the coconut cookies I saw in my email's inbox a few weeks ago.
Thank you again for a super website with super recipes. You're the best!
Happy New Year,
Debi in Mexico
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks for your lovely review as always Debi! 🙂
Tania Davidson
Hi, I’m wanting to cook this cake for a vegan friend for Xmas. Have you tried swapping the eggs out and if so, what did you use instead please?
Regina | Leelalicious
I haven't personally tried to make the cake vegan, but a commenter on social media said they used an egg substitute (I believe it was a powdered commercial egg substitute). The cake didn't come out exactly the same, but still tasted great and they enjoyed it.
Frances
This was delicious, thank you! I made it for my son's birthday. I used a less sweet glaze of 1T honey and 2T lemon juice.
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Happy Belated Birthday to your son! I'm so glad to learn that you chose to make this cake for him for his special day.
Nicole
This recipe gave me a great foundation. I love coconut products but the flour isn’t my favorite. So, I used 1/3 coconut, 1/3 almond flour + 2 tsp of bob’s gluten free 1-1, all to equate to 2/3 cup flour. I add lil splashes of vanilla, lemon and almond extract w/o measuring. I think the almond really boosted the flavor. I love the texture and they turned out great. I used monk fruit I believe 1/4 cup and also used an oversized muffin tin (6).
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks for letting us know about your modifications, Nicole! I'm glad you enjoyed this cake recipe and were able to make it your own. 🙂
Luba
Hi. Im sure the cake is great. It is still in the oven. But if Im not mistaken in the written list of ingredients you suggested 1/8 c of lemon juice but in the video you talked about 1/4 c of lemon juice. Its too late for me as i followed the recipe) but its good to know which one is correct?
Regina | Leelalicious
Hi Luba, you did it correctly. There is 1/8 cup of lemon juice in the cake batter. The other 1/8 c (or 2 tbsp) is for the glaze. So when I squeeze fresh lemon juice in the beginning, I make sure I get 1/4 cup (1/8 + 1/8) for the entire recipe all in one go.