Soft and lightly sweet gluten free lemon coffee cake with ingredients you can feel good about!
A bit of fresh citrus to brighten our long winter!
These long Michigan winters! We sure do make the best of it, but by the end of February we long for something to brighten our moods a bit! I’ll always be forever thankful for whatever areas of California and Southern states are sending the citrus our way during February each year, because we really enjoy it!
A fresh and bright new breakfast!
Lemons and honey are a match made in heaven, and this lemony sweet coffee cake is no exception! I have fallen in love with the grain free combo of cassava and almond flours together lately. You won’t miss the regular flour with the soft, almost “gluten-like” texture of this coffee cake. And the honey sweetened lemon brightness is the perfect start to the day!
Quick prep & low fuss!
Because real life, right momma?! Whether you are making this coffee cake for a special Easter brunch, or your weekend breakfast, the prep time won’t take you all day in the kitchen with these simple ingredients. Even the crumb topping is a simple mix into a bowl!
Ingredient swaps and tips
- You can swap the 2 cups of grain free flours for 2 cups of Namaste GF Flour blend if you do well with grains. I love the resistant starch of cassava plus the fat and protein in the almond flours, but understand not everyone can tolerate those. I also plan to make the coffee cake with just the GF Flour blend as well as I truly think rotating our food ingredients and not always eating the same thing is important!
- Egg free friends, this recipe only has ONE egg! Woot! That means a flax egg, gelatin egg, or other egg replacer should work just fine. I even think an applesauce egg would be ok.
- I seriously love almond extract with the flavors of this coffee cake, but if you don’t have that around, vanilla extract will work too.
- The crumb topping is super forgiving and customize-able. I have done coconut shreds mixed with some of the flour. I have done blended walnuts mixed with some of the flour too – you can use what you have on hand.
Freezer friendly
I did take some leftovers of one of the batches that I made of this lemon coffee cake to freeze, and it thawed out great. If you have an abundance of lemons, you sure could double this up into 2 square pans so you can freeze some slices of coffee cake for busy school day mornings.
Gluten Free Lemon Coffee Cake :: Paleo Friend & Honey Sweetened!
Ingredients
FOR THE COFFEE CAKE ::
- ½ cup softened butter or organic palm shortening if you can’t have butter/dairy
- 1/3–1/2 cup honey coconut sugar will work here but will change the color of the coffee cake
- 2 ½ tbsp lemon zest I had 2 lemons so this was what I got from 2 lemons
- 1 tsp almond extract vanilla extract would be fine – the almond is SO good though
- 1 egg
- ½ cup full fat coconut milk or raw milk if you can have dairy
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup juice from lemons I used 2 lemons
- 1 cup cassava flour
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt
FOR THE CRUMB TOPPING ::
- ¼ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup cassava flour
- 3-4 tbsp avocado oil or melted butter or olive oil
- 1 tbsp juice from a lemon
- 2 tbsp honey
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees, and grease a 2 quart baking dish with butter, coconut oil, or palm shortening.
- Blend the butter, honey, lemon zest, and almond extract in a medium mixing bowl until creamed.
- Add the egg, coconut milk, ACV, and lemon juice, and blend to combine.
- Add the flours, baking powder, and sea salt, and blend until just combined, and then pour the coffee cake batter into the greased baking pan.
- Combine the crumb topping ingredients int a small bowl, and sprinkle over the top of the coffee cake.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the middle is set and the top is lightly golden brown. Cool the coffee cake at least 10 minutes before cutting and serving. The coffee cake holds together and firms up as it cools.
More real food LEMON recipes you might like ::
- Simple Fermented Lemonade
- GF Lemon Breakfast Cookies
- Paleo Lemon Poppyseed Mini Muffins
- DIY Electrolyte Drink
Gosh darn this looks so amazing!! Cassava is one of my favorites, and the lemon!!!
This sounds delicious and I love that it’s sweetened with honey. Do you think I can sub the almond flour? I personally can’t do them, but I’ll still make this cake for my kids if there isn’t a sub! Can’t wait! 🙂
Oh, my mouth is watering! I’ve been craving lemon things lately. I love that this is honey-sweetened!
I’m a huge fan of anything lemon but have yet to try lemon coffee cake! Pinning this recipe to make later!
Lemon desserts are seriously the best and this looks amazing! I bet it’s perfect with a mug of coffee in the morning.
Never seen a lemon coffee cake before – LOVE this idea! And that topping!
This sounds utterly divine! So looking forward to trying it!
This looks delicious, I love lemon in baking! My family would love this!
Renee, this is such a beautiful cake! I love that tender crumb and what you said about lemon brightening up this long tail end of winter. What a treat for your family. Pinning for mine too!! 😉
This is my kind of treat! Lemon is my favorite and I love the look of the crumble on it!
Mmm looks and sounds YUMMY! I have both flours on hand and am going to try this as soon as the ‘dust settles around here’ lol
Thanks for creating these wonderful GF idea.. I am not celiac and have not been ‘tested’ for intolerance, but in my opinion, the more we can avoid GLUTEN, the better we all are.. When we can create a repertoire of dishes we are comfortable making, we are ahead of the game. In my herbal practice, I encourage these alternatives as SO many people do ‘test’ for sensitivity and feel SO much better ‘off Gluten’ or with limited gluten. Thanks again!
My husband LOVES lemon cake, so I can’t wait to share this recipe with him so HE can make it… because – keeping it real – he’s the better chef 😉
This lemon cake will brighten up any winter day! I love all of the healthy ingredients in here too.
So super odd, I HATE lemon drinks (lemonade, no thank you), put passionately LOVE lemon treats and sweets. A gluten-free lemon coffee cake is the bee’s knees! And then I can have dessert for breakfast, guilt free.
That looks so delicious! Totally love it!
We’re having the exact same thoughts right now, I’m just craving anything lemon to ‘brighten’ things up and I definitely need to make this next weekend!
Wonderful flavor. Mine did have a chewy texture, which was ok. I think that is the cassava flour. I think the 1/2 c. sweetener is the way to go. Thanks for the creative recipe! I love your blog! The increase in advertisements is a bit disruptive and disappointing, but I understand it’s part of blogging. Just seems like there has been a noticeable increase recently!
Wonderful flavor. Mine did have a chewy texture, which was ok. I think that is the cassava flour. I think the 1/2 c. sweetener is the way to go. Thanks for the creative recipe! I love your blog! The increase in advertisements is a bit disruptive and disappointing, but I understand it’s part of blogging. Just seems like there has been a noticeable increase recently!
Hi Sarah! I’m glad you liked the coffee cake!
I haven’t changed the ads or ad service in years, so it should be all the same – thank you for understanding that it is a part of being able to put free recipes here on the blog for you!
I made this yesterday and I
Substituted half cup gf flour for the almond flour and it worked out perfectly! Fluffy and crumbly. I used a coconut and palm shortening blend because it’s what I had on hand and it worked out fine! I want to try ghee next. My daughter is allergic to dairy but is fine with ghee. I didn’t make the crumble topping because I didn’t have coconut flour on hand but definitely add that when I get some coconut flour. Thanks again for your recipes!
Could ghee be substituted for the butter/palm oil? Thanks!
Hi Natalie! I think that would work ok – the flavor will be a little nuttier which I think will be delicious!
Hi Natalie! Yes, ghee should work fine here!