One bowl paleo lemon olive oil cake | made with grain free flours, no refined sugars, fiery ginger, lemon zest & olive oil. | Gluten Free + Paleo + Dairy Free
I have deemed January as a month of systemizing and organizing. That probably sounds incredibly boring but I personally love nerding out on bullet journals, organizational systems and morning routines. Yesterday I even ordered a Daily Greatness Journal and now I keep checking my email to see if it’s been dispatched yet.
As things currently stand my morning routine is just me getting up early and jumping right into work. Most the time I don’t even bother brushing my hair – the benefit of working from home. As much as I enjoy hitting the ground running, I think I’d be better off adopting a much slower, thoughtful start to my morning.
Whatever I decide for a morning routine – I want this paleo lemon olive oil cake involved. And paired with a fresh pot of coffee! Or at least some type of quick bread/breakfast cake. You in?
Paleo Lemon Olive Oil Cake
The batter for this is made in one bowl and is based off my paleo zucchini bread I shared a few months back. It’s made with grain free flours, grated zucchini, fresh lemon zest, fiery ginger, honey, and of course, olive oil. It’s worth making for the smells alone.
Since we’re working with coconut flour here we need plenty of moisture to work with so our cake is not too dry. That being said, make sure you squeeze as much water out of your zucchini as you can. No soggy middles wanted here!
The type of olive oil you use is going to have an impact on the taste. Extra virgin olive oil is going to impart a much grassier/fruitier olive taste while light olive oil will be more mild. Technically, I don’t think light olive oil is considered paleo since it’s a much more refined oil. But then technically, I’m not sure our primal ancestors would have been eating cake either. Just keep that in mind when making this.
If you’re interested in a more traditionally sweet lemon cake, you may prefer trying the almond lemon & poppy seed loaf I made last year. It’s a much sweeter recipe with or without the lemon glaze. While my mother in law & I have been eating this cake like we’re getting paid for it, I think the olive oil confuses Mike. But then he’s always had a much more pronounced sweet tooth.
If I always had this to wake up to I’d definetly be savoring my morning routine a little more.
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Paleo Lemon Olive Oil Cake
One bowl paleo lemon olive oil cake | made with grain free flours, no refined sugars, fiery ginger, lemon zest & olive oil. | Gluten Free + Paleo + Dairy Free
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons honey
- 1 1/2 cup | 150 gram shredded zucchini, squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can before adding to the mix
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 1/4 cup | 55 grams extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup | 48 grams almond flour
- 1/2 cup | 56 grams coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/178°C
- Beat the eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add the vanilla, the honey, and oil to the eggs, mixing thoroughly.
- Mix in the shredded zucchini and zest.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix well until no clumps remain.
- Grease your loaf pan, or line with parchment and scoop your batter into the pan.
- Place in the oven and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a knife going into the center comes out clean.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
9Amount Per Serving: Calories: 193Saturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 109mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 3gSugar: 12gProtein: 5g
Maria Tulovsky says
Can I replace the coconut flour with something else? Would oat flour work?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Maria! Unfortunately I don’t have any good coconut flour substitutes here that I could recommend. Coconut flour is a tricky flour to work with because it’s extremely absorbent. You often need way less coconut flour than you would other flour types so it can be hard to make 1:1 substitutes.
Sorry I can’t be more help here – I would just hate to steer you wrong!
Charmain Harris says
Hi Sarah….I found your website only today and have seen some recipes that I am definitely going to try.
One question re the olive oil cake…why is the gram measurement different with the two flours even though they are both half cup?
Thank you. Looking forward to your response.
Sarah says
Hi Charmain!Different types of flours have different masses which is why they often have different weights when you weigh out what would look like an equal amount. A better example that really demonstrates this idea is if you compare 1 cup of blueberries to 1 cup strawberries – even though you’re measuring out 1 cup of each fruit the amount of fruit you can fit in the measuring cut is different. That difference is a lot more subtle when it comes to flours, but in gluten free cooking the accuracy can make a big difference.
I hope that makes sense!
Nadia Barcelo says
I just made them and they were delicious! instead of 4 eggs, I used 4 flax eggs ( 4 tablespoons of flax and 12 tablespoons of water) and I turned them into muffins:) i do have a question about the olive oil measurements, however. When I was measuring out the olive oil on my weight scale into a measuring cup, it hit 55 grams when it was only at 1/4 cup, which confused me because your recipe says that 55 grams is equivalent to 1/2 cup. I just went according to grams and just used 1/4 cup. Was I supposed to use 1/2 a cup?
Sarah says
Hi Nadia! Thanks so much for pointing that out to me – that’s a total typo on my part and you did it right using grams. Also – thank you so much for coming back to share about using flax eggs! I get so many questions about egg substitutes so that’s really helpful to know!
Christina says
Can you substitute almond flour with something else? My daughter is allergic to almonds 🙁
Sarah says
Hi Christina! I’m afraid I’m not sure – you could try replacing it with another type of nut flour. I’ve had some luck using sunflower seed flour in the past with almond flour recipes but I haven’t tried it with this recipe. If you were up for experimenting you can make it by grinding sunflower seeds in a blender or food processor until it becomes a flour. Sorry I couldn’t be more help here!
Marinelis Ruiz says
Hi. Can I ommit the zucchini or replace it with other thing? The recipe looks amazing but I cant find the zucchini easy. Thanks a lot.
Sarah says
Hi Marinelias! I wouldn’t recommend leaving out the zucchini entirely. As for replacing it with another ingredient I’m not sure what else to suggest that wouldn’t change the texture/moisture/flavour too much. You might be better off finding a different recipe and starting there. If you’re looking for a lemon cake type recipe you might like this lemon almond poppy seed loaf better https://www.asaucykitchen.com/almond-lemon-poppy-seed-loaf/ Sorry I couldn’t help more here!
Kelly says
I haven’t tried it, but I think spaghetti squash would turn out very similar to zucchini. Or possibly a cooked shredded root vegetable, though it would be more work.
ERIKA GARCIA says
Hi,
Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe.
How can I replace the honey?
I would like to use stevia instead of honey if possible.
Thank you!
Sarah says
Hi Erika! So I’v been thinking this question over trying to figure out the best way to replace honey with stevia and I’m pretty stumped. To be honest, I very seldom use stevia when baking so I don’t have a lot of experience using it. I just know you need very little because it’s much sweeter than other types of sweeteners. The other problem here is that the honey in the recipe helps add extra moisture. Since we’re working with coconut flour we don’t want to disrupt the balance of liquid to dry ingredients too much or you can end up with some pretty dry tasting bread.
However, I was looking through different articles and I found this one that talks about using stevia. I was reading through the comments (always where I find the best info) and someone was talking about replacing honey with applesauce to keep the moisture. You can always try using unsweetened applesauce and then a little bit of stevia. I can’t guarantee that it will work because I’ve never tried it that way, but I think that could be a good place to start.
I hope that helps!
Ashley @ Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen says
This looks *so* good! Love the addition of zucchini here.
Sarah says
Thanks Ashley!