No refined sugar, no grains, no flour, no fat? How’s it possible to bake a cake without any of these ingredients? Welcome to the sunny side of Primal cookery magic! We have organic lemons, eggs, raw honey and ground almonds with a few drops of pure liquid stevia and that my friends, is all!
Unbelievably, this beautiful moist lemon cake has absolutely no rubbish ingredients to wreck your health or expand your waistline! It is intense-lemon-flavoured cake nirvana! A gorgeous celebratory springtime cake, perhaps to say “thank you” to mums everywhere on 15 March 2015.
Adapted from Rose Elliot’s book Fast, Fresh and Fabulous, I’ve simply substituted organic raw honey and liquid stevia for refined sugar and voilà…you cannot see or taste the difference! What I am glad to say is that this golden beauty of lemon cakes has only half the carbohydrates of the original!
It works perfectly served with a Blueberry Compote and crème fraîche but it’s also good to eat on its own.
So now you know that a low-carb diet can mean having your cake and eating it, I hope you are inspired to make this delicious and nutritious treat. I am keen to know how you get on so please post your comments below and, if you’re feeling brave, a photo would be good too!
Lemon Cake (Serves 12) with Blueberry Compote and Crème Fraîche
Ingredients - for the lemon cake
2 organic lemons
6 organic eggs - preferably at room temperature
125g raw organic clear honey
10 drops organic liquid stevia
250g ground almonds
Blueberry compote & crème fraîche, to serve - optional
Instructions
Wash the lemons then put them in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until soft (about 45 minutes). Take off the heat and leave to cool.
Pre-heat the oven to 150℃ / 300℉ / Gas mark 2.
Grease a loose-based 8” cake tin (preferably springform) and line the sides and base with non-stick baking parchment.
Drain the lemons, cut them into quarters and remove any pips. Put the lemon quarters into a food processor or blender and whizz to a golden puree.
Using an electric whisk, whisk the eggs, honey and liquid stevia together for about 6 to 8 minutes until they are pale and thick and until the mixture holds its shape for a few seconds when it’s flicked across the surface of the rest of the mix.
Whisk in the lemon puree. Then, using a large metal spoon, gently fold in the ground almonds.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1¼ hours, or until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. If the cake starts to get too brown, cover lightly with a sheet of greaseproof paper.
Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin, then turn out carefully and remove the paper.
Ingredients - for the blueberry compote (Serves 6)
300g fresh blueberries
100g no-added sugar blueberry or blackcurrant fruit spread (I used Clearspring organic blueberry fruit spread)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
Instructions
Combine the blueberries, lemon juice, lemon zest and the fruit spread in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook for about 5 minutes or until the fruit spread dissolves, the blueberry juices start to run and the mixture becomes syrupy - don’t let the berries cook too long or they will become mushy and lose their beautiful shape.
Remove from the heat. Serve warm or cold with the lemon cake.
Notes
The blueberry compote is also really good with plain Greek yogurt for a low-carb breakfast, topped with toasted flaked almonds.
Carbohydrate 10g Protein 9g - per serving of cake
Carbohydrate 13g Protein 0g - per serving of blueberry compote
