This naturally gluten free Flourless Whole Meyer Lemon cake is made with the entire lemon, peel and all, in the Mediterranean tradition, it has a tender texture and an explosive lemon flavor.
I spent the day before we left clearing out the kitchen like I always do before a trip that’s going to be more than a couple of days long. I promised myself I wouldn’t cook anything so I could focus my attention on cleaning up, packing, getting the dog squared away with the pet sitter, and paying stray bills. That all went out the window when I saw I had four plump Meyer lemons sitting in the fruit bowl. You can’t throw Meyer lemons in the garbage. That’s a sacrilege.
My Flourless Whole Tangerine Cake was the inspiration here. Cakes made with whole citrus fruit are a Mediterranean specialty; they’re made with the whole fruit, peel and all. There is no wheat flour in this cake, just almond meal, so it has a fabulous moist dense texture and is naturally gluten free. In addition to the 3 whole lemons in the cake I added a touch of lemon extract and a super tangy lemon icing so this cake is really the essence of ‘lemony-ness’.
This flourless whole Meyer lemon cake is probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you are a citrus fanatic like I am, I think you will love it. The fruit is boiled before pureeing, and that takes away any unpleasant bitterness in the peel. The combination of the whole pureed fruit and the almond meal makes for a very moist, but not soggy, cake.
Traditionally this kind of cake would be served plain, maybe with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar, but I went over the top with a puckery lemon icing. I originally added it because the surface of my cake was a little jagged and wasn’t very attractive for photographing, but I’m so glad I did, it makes the cake extra special. It’s the kind of cake you can serve to guests, or eat, sliver by sliver, all week long.
A note about flavor — I am a big fan of pure flavor extracts. I’m talking about pure natural extracts, not artificial flavorings. I think they add a nice boost in certain cases and in this case the lemon extract just enhances the citrus flavor of the cake. It’s handy to have a selection in your cupboard, especially as we go into the holiday and baking season. In addition to almond and vanilla I keep spearmint, peppermint, lemon, orange, rum, and coconut extracts around. I’m searching for maple extract, which is a little harder to find. There are lots of varieties available, ranging from pistachio to watermelon and cardamom. Just remember to say away from anything with the words ‘artificial’ or ‘imitation’ on the label. Olive Nation has a great selection if you’re interested.
If you love gluten free desserts, try some of my others, I love this Belgian Flourless Chocolate Cake, I’ve been making it for years, and it’s always a hit with guests. Yotam Ottolenghi’s Flourless Coconut Cake is an unusual gluten free cake for coconut lovers.
Reader Rave ~
“I absolutely love LOVE love this recipe and made it many times. But today I tried something different. I made cupcakes. Worked perfectly. A muffin tin was used but I poured the batter into larger sized paper muffin cups. Wasn’t sure how much to put in each and guessed, filled about 2/3 up and got 11 (of the 12) filled. Perfect. Was able to peel the paper off without any issue and the resulting cupcakes were super moist and as good as the larger sized cake.” ~ Andrew
Flourless Whole Meyer Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 3 or 4 large Meyer Lemons, approximately 12 oz, total to yield 1 cup of whole lemon puree
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 cups almond meal
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp lemon extract
for the lemon icing
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Set oven to 325F
- Wash the lemons and put them in a pot. Cover them with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 15 minutes.
- Drain the lemons and let them cool until you can handle them. Cut them open and remove the seeds, but keep everything else. Do this on a plate so you can retain all the juices. Once you have removed all the seeds, put everything into a food processor. Process until finely pureed. You may need to pulse the machine at first, and scrape down the sides as necessary to get everything smooth. This will only take a couple of minutes. You will need one cup of lemon puree for the cake.
- Beat the eggs and the sugar until pale in color. Add the lemon extract.
- Fold in the almond meal, baking powder, and lemon puree. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Turn the batter into a greased 9" springform pan. Smooth out the surface so it is even.
- Bake for about 50 -60 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then gently release the sides of the pan and remove the cake to finish cooling.
- Make the icing while the cake is cooling. Combine the sugar with the butter and lemon juice. Beat until smooth and creamy. Adjust the texture by adding more sugar or more lemon juice. If you prefer a less tangy icing, use less lemon juice and add a little milk or cream. Spread the icing on the completely cooled cake.
I’ve already made a very similar cake with the same ingredients plus butter. This seams much healthier and I am definitely going to try it. I was wondering if I could freeze the boiled lemons after blending them to use later. Have you tried it? Any suggestion would be much apreciated.
Hi! I made this recipe as written and it was a huge hit! For dietary reasons I have to make it without lemon extract. Do you have any suggestions for a substitution, or do you think it will be OK without? Thank you so much!
Sue, I would love to make this cake, especially because it is gluten-free! Maybe I can’t make it for a family gathering though because my nephew has a tree nut allergy. Do you have any suggestion for keeping it gluten-free but not using a nut-based flour?
I live alone so would want to make this when it can be shared with family members.
I’m afraid I haven’t tried this with a non-nut flour, so I can’t really guide you, sorry!
LOVED this cake! Moist, dense and lemony. I didn’t pay attention to the 1 cup amount of lemon. I just boiled three big ones and used it all! It was probably closer to a cup and a half. It was awesome.
What is a Meyer lemon? Never heard of them in the UK.
It’s a variety that’s sweeter, with a thinner skin, Diane. It works especially well when you’re using the whole fruit, because the peel is thinner and not as bitter.
Can I sub all purpose flour? I don’t have almond meal on hand.
This recipe is formulated for almond flour Stephanie, and I haven’t tested it with regular flour, so I’m afraid I can’t say how that would work. I have lots of other lemon cakes on the blog you might check out that use regular flour. Just type ‘lemon cake’ into my search bar.
This cake is just what I hoped it would be! It’s dense, moist, almost a bit chewy and lovely lemony. The icing is perfect, although I did my own thing with a bit of cream cheese, butter, honey and powdered sugar along with the lemon juice. We like it tart! I ate 2 pcs I couldn’t help myself. Tomorrow no cake!! Also I’m at high altitude (Denver) and I used just a couple adjustments: oven temp 350, 3/4 t. baking powder. Things rise too quickly here and then collapse, these fixes completely solved the problem. Thanks, we loved it!
Hi I used 4 leoms and ended up with 2 cups of puree. Only making one cake so wondering if I can freeze leftover puree for a different time?
I think that should work fine.
Can you freeze this cake?
Ok but what is the nutritional value of this???