Just to make it clear, this wonderful cake, just like all the gluten-free cakes we sell at our bakery, does not taste GF. If you don’t know it’s gluten-free, you can’t tell.
However, for those of you who do not wish to bake GF, you can switch the GF tart flour in the recipe with regular cake flour and omit the xanthan gum.
My inspiration for this cake comes from one of Israel’s favorite summer drinks – Limonana, which is a cold lemonade infused with fresh nana (spearmint). I love this combination of flavors! The refreshing mint beautifully enhances the brightness of the lemon – it’s a match made in heaven.
So I thought, why not try it as a cake? I did. And I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought it would be a good idea. This cake is one of the best selling cakes in my bakery. Especially when it’s hot out.
This is really a perfect summer cake!
Ingredients:
¾ cup (70g) almond flour
1 ¼ cup (160g) GF tart flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup (120ml) vegetable oil
1 ¼ cups (250g) sugar
3 eggs
Juice from ½ lemon
½ teaspoon lemon extract
1tsp lemon zest
½ cup (15g) chopped fresh mint, leaves only
Chopped pistachios for decoration
Preparation:
Preheat an oven to 350F.
In a bowl, mix flours, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt, and set aside.
In a mixer, beat oil with sugar and eggs for 5 min.
Add the flour, and the liquids. Add the lemon zest and the chopped mint and mix.
Pour into a pre-greased loaf pan and top with pistachios.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Lemon cakes tend to turn brown very fast. If the top of the cake is golden brown, but the cake is not fully baked, cover the cake with tin foil to stop the browning on top and keep baking until an inserted toothpick comes out clean with some crumbs on it.
