Moist gluten-free lemon cake

This gluten-free cake is easy to make and keeps for several days – as long as you can resist the temptation to finish it in one go!

Lemon cake with polenta and almond flour

Ingredients

Cake

200 g soft butter

200 g sugar

200 g almond flour or ground almonds

100 g polenta or cornmeal (I like the coarse-ground type to give the cake more texture)

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

1.5 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

Lemon drizzle

Juice of 2 lemons

125 g icing sugar

Follow these steps:

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 175 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4 and place the oven rack on the middle shelf. Grease a springform cake tin, approx. 24 cm in diameter.
2. Beat the sugar and soft butter together until fluffy. It’s important that the butter is really soft or this will be difficult. You can add one of the eggs if necessary.
3. Mix the almond flour, polenta and baking powder in a separate bowl.
4. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture and gradually add the flour, beating all the while. Make sure everything is mixed thoroughly. Add the lemon zest.
5. Spread the mixture into your prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes; check after 30 minutes. Take the cake out when the edges are nicely brown and have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Check the cake with a skewer/cake tester to make sure the centre is cooked.

Lemon drizzle

1. Heat the lemon juice and icing sugar together in a saucepan until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Pour the lemon drizzle over the cake while it’s still warm and let it soak into the cake. Allow the cake to cool before serving.

Serve the cake with tangy berries and whipped cream. The cake is suitable for freezing but will also stay moist for several days in the fridge.

Text and photo: Ida Köhler