Frisky Lemon Cake | A Grain-free, refined sugar free recipe

I was in the mood for lemon cake.

So I decided to make some.

Kim Dannies, a blog reader who also happens to be a food writer for a local newspaper in Vermont, put this idea into my head.

Kim sent me this recipe and I’ve been dreaming of lemon cake ever since.

Well, I tried to replicate her recipe, using coconut flour and maple syrup in the place of flour and sugar, but it ended up being a total disaster. My substitutions were off– not enough sweet, too much almond meal…it ended up tasting like an almond-y rock.

Totally my fault.

I’m pretty confident that this recipe is phenomenal in its original form. The ratios of ingredients were just hard to replace using my rudimentary paleo-i-fying skills.

Failure = I’m still jonesing for some lemon cake.

So I decided to try something new.

Frisky Lemon Cake (Adapted from this recipe by Ms. Stewart) 

Ingredients:

1 cup plain Greek Yogurt

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp lemon zest

3 Tbsp lemon juice

3/4 cup raw honey

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

4 Tbsp coconut oil (I used Tropical Traditions Gold)

3 eggs and 3 egg whites

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325 F and grease a 9 inch baking pan. I used a spring form pan, but you could easily use any cake pan.
2. In a small bowl, combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, honey, vanilla and yogurt.
3. In a large bowl combine the coconut oil and eggs. Use an electric mixer to beat each egg into the coconut oil. Once they are well mixed, beat in the lemon juice/yogurt mixture.
4. Sift in the coconut flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. It’s best to continue to mix on low throughout.
5. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack and then eat with your hand…I mean, slice and serve like a civilized person.

This was my first time using Tropical Traditions coconut oil. It. Was. Awesome.

I found it richer and creamier than other coconut oils I’ve used. AND it had the most delicious coconut flavor! I had to taste test some on a spoon before I used it. I knew it would be good, but I didn’t know it would be good enough to eat by itself. This is a coconut oil worth eating plain for sure…if you’re into that…and I am.

Virgin coconut oil is produced by traditional methods using the fresh coconuts. This stuff is as unrefined as you can get. Gold Label coconut oil has more antioxidants than other coconut oils– it retains more of that coconutty-goodness that I’m so fond of.  I also love that it’s produced on small family farms in the coconut capital of  the Philippines.

The batter smelled like yellow cake from a box and the finished cake was light and fluffy.

I didn’t frost it, because it didn’t need any frosting. It had the distinct flavor of a coconut flour baked good, but with a delightfully lemon-y taste as well.

The lemon zest and lemon juice added just enough lemon.

Frisky Lemon Cake success! I would definitely make this cake again for a special occasion. I’m thinking next time I’ll double the recipe, and make a layer cake with some kind of delicious frosting. Maybe a frosting of the lemon cream cheese variety. What do you think?