Dairy-Free Lemon Poppy Seed Cake With Almonds

A dairy-free lemon poppyseed cake I made for Easter. While I do eat everything, I still enjoy making desserts with a healthier twist and I decided to avoid dairy for this Easter cake. I know many of you suffer either from gluten or dairy intolerances, or simply try to reduce the intake of certain products for cosmetic reasons. I have teamed up with one of the biggest Lithuanian flour producers Malsena to create this treat, using white spelt flour instead of the all-purpose flour in order to make the cake more nutritious, so that’s another win win. If you are gluten intolerant, you can try this recipe using a gluten-free flour mix instead, but the amount will vary.

This is my take on a classic lemon poppyseed cake, but this one has spelt flour mixed with ground almonds as a base, unrefined brown sugar and coconut palm sugar duo for sweetness, lemon juice and lots of zest for the flavouring and coconut oil for fat.

You can make this cake in a bundt pan if you want it to look extra decorative. topped with caramelised sweet & salty almonds it will be the highlight of any table.

I chose white sugar powder for the lemon drizzle, but you could also blend unrefined brown sugar in a powerful blender to make brown powdered sugar. Have in mind that in this case your drizzle will turn caramel brown.

Instructions

Beat the eggs with both sugars and vanilla extract until doubled in size and glossy.

Mix flour with ground almonds, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Stir in melted coconut oil with poppy seeds into the egg mixture then mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Carefully stir in the dry ingredients to form an even dough.

Pour the dough into a lightly oiled baking tin and put it into a preheated 160°C fan setting (180°C no fan) oven for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with just a few dry crumbs.

Remove cake from the baking tin once it cools slightly and place it on a cooling rack to cool completely. Carefully pour 60 ml of lemon juice on top of the cake so that it takes in all of the liquid.

For the lemon drizzle, mix lemon juice with powdered sugar and drizzle it over the cake in a few layers. Keep the cake on a cooling rack while you do it.

Now wash your almonds and place them on a dry frying pan on medium-low heat until they become fragrant and brown slightly. Pour in a few tablespoons of maple syrup, sprinkle quite a bit of sea salt and stir to incorporate. Maple syrup will crystallise creating a shiny layer on each almond.

Top the cake with caramelised almonds once they’re cool.