Gluten & Dairy Free Lemon Drizzle Cake

This exquisite recipe is from Harry Eastwood’s beautiful book 'Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache' (Birthday Cake pg. 2). Harry is a very talented British born Chef, Author, food writer and TV presenter. Full credit must go to Harry for the recipe, the cake is incredibly delicious… Thank you! 

I was inspired to make a Gluten & Dairy free cake for a very dear friend. The first time I baked this cake I was in awe. I was completely taken by surprise – I had never baked a cake with courgette before the cake actually tasted like CAKE! 

Sometimes Gluten & Dairy free cakes can be rather dense, however this cake has a beautiful light texture and the inclusion of courgette (zucchini - depending where you reside) produces a beautiful moist cake crumb. In Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache the cake is iced with a butter cream and filled with strawberry jam. I have introduced a drizzle to enable the cake to be dairy free. The lemon drizzle also enhances the lemon flavour within the cake, it also adds a wonderful crunchy texture to the cakes.

When I baked the cakes for my girlfriend, she absolutely LOVED them. She was like a child in a sweet shop…she had so missed the taste of cake with a cup of tea. Its moments like those I treasure making cake for people.

This cake is for you Jacquie X

Please Note If you like a drier crumb textured cake I would recommend you squeeze out the excess water from the courgette as seen in the photos. I find the cake to be very moist and sponge like if the courgette water is not squeezed out. This is a personal preference, try to make it both ways and see what you prefer? I like to use loaf tins as the cake does not have icing between the layers. You could also whip Coconut Cream and layer the cake or alternatively you could serve the cake with Dairy Free ice cream Mmm!

Prep Time 28 - 30 mins Cooking time 25 mins  Yield 2 loaf tins or 3 round 7 inch sponges 

Cake Ingredients

4 medium free range eggs

200g caster sugar

220g white rice flour (I use Doves Farm Gluten Free Rice Flour)

140g ground almonds

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Zest from 3 organic lemons (or unwaxed lemons)

400g courgette (topped, tailed, peeled & finely grated)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350F. Line the base of 2 loaf tins with grease proof paper leaving additional paper either end. This will also help to remove the cakes from the pan once baked (there is no need to grease the pans as long as you have lined the pans).

2. Weigh rice flour, ground almonds, salt and baking powder, combine using a hand whisk and set aside.

3. Wash, pat dry the lemons and courgette. Zest all 3 lemons using a Microplane (or fine grater). Take care to avoid the pith, you only want the fragrant zest, then set aside.

4. Combine the eggs and caster sugar in your mixing bowl. Using the bloom whisk attachment, lightly mix the egg and sugar to combine by hand. Attatch the whisk to your stand mixer, start the mixer on a low speed for 30 seconds then increase the speed to high for approx 6 minutes (this will depend on your machine) until the mixture has tripled in volume, is pale in colour. If you're unsure, remove the whisk and draw a figure of 8, it should sit proud on the mixture from start to finish (before sinking back into the mixture). Refer to the slide show.

5. Whilst the egg and sugar is whisking. Top, tail and peel the courgettes. Then finely grate them just before you are ready to use them. Once grated, I use a pair of scissors to cut through the courgette to avoid any long strands and squeeze off any excess water.. If you leave some of the green peel this will be noticeable in the cake (start with 400g by the time you have peeled them you end up with approximately 300g).

6. Once the sugar and eggs have thickened, add the lemon zest and courgette and gently fold into the mixture briefly using a spatula or metal spoon. Then add the dry ingredients and fold gently until all ingredients are combined and you can no longer see pockets of flour. Occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl and the spatula to incorporate all of the ingredients. 

7. Once completely combined, evenly distribute into the 2 prepared cake tins and place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes.

8. Weigh out the granulated sugar and set aside. Juice the lemons, you will not need the juice from all 3 (try 2 initially), strain the lemon juice of pulp and seeds and set aside. It will depend on the size of the lemons and how ripe they are as to how much juice they will yield. Do not mix the sugar and lemon until you are ready to use as the sugar will begin to dissolve you will loose the crunchy texture.

9. Lay out wire racks in anticipation of the hot cake pans!

10. Whilst the cake is cooking, you will smell the courgette essentially steaming within the cake. The smell is not the usual beautiful aroma from a cake – don’t be alarmed… This is the scent from the courgette, you will find the scent stronger if you have not squeezed out the excess water as the courgette steams as part of the cooking process. The cake does not smell like this once its baked, it smells delicious.

11. Check the cake after 25 mins, the cake's crust will be a golden brown colour, it will have retracted from the tin and will spring back when lightly touched. Once cooked, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack.

12. Allow the cake to cool down for 10 mins. Then run a sharp thin bladed knife around the cakes edge. Whilst the cakes slightly warm, gently remove the cakes from the pan and rest on the wire rack.

13. Whilst warm, combine the granulated sugar and lemon juice and pour evenly over the top of both the cakes. If you like a really moist cake you can also poke holes with a tooth pick or skewer to allow the syrup to absorb into the cake. Then cake is ready to serve.

Store the cake in an airtight container, it will keep for up to a week although it never lasts that long in our household.

Top Tips!

• Start with 400g courgette, once topped, tailed and peeled the courgette ends up weighing around 300g of actual grated courgette.
• Do not combine the sugar and lemon juice until you are ready to use it. As the lemon juice will start to dissolve the granulated sugar and you will loose that crunchy texture.
• Pour the drizzle on the cake whilst the cake is still warm, you can poke the cake with a toothpick or skewer and the drizzle will be absorbed into the cake.
• The drizzle will set, so be careful transferring to a serving plate to avoid cracking of the drizzle.
• For a drier crumb texture roughly squeeze out the excess water from the courgette.
• You can also layer the cake with whipped coconut cream.