Gluten-Free Lemon Drizzle Cake

I’ve always been a fan of lemon desserts.

There’s a reason that my Gluten-Free Lemon Bars - a great recipe, by the way - were one of the first GF recipes I ever developed!

Anyway, when I was a kid, there was a lemon loaf cake that we’d get on special occasions.

I think it was probably a fairly classic recipe, with a bright lemon flavor thanks to both a lemon simple syrup drizzle, and a lemon glaze.

I’ve seen a few mentions of lemon drizzle cake in my social media timelines lately, so I decided to come up with a simple gluten free recipe for it.

It took a bit of playing around with it, but here we are, with my gluten-free lemon drizzle cake recipe!

This gluten-free lemon cake is technically more of a quick bread than a gluten-free cake recipe - you can mix it together by hand, no food processor, stand mixer, or even hand mixer necessary!

It has the perfect texture - moist with a delicate crumb, fairly uncharacteristic of many gluten free products.

Part of the reason for the great texture is that it does not contain almond flour / almond meal.

I’ve never been a fan of using ground almonds in my gluten free baking - it doesn’t absorb moisture in the same way as other flours do, and also poses a problem for those with nut allergies.

I like to be as inclusive with my baking as possible!

While drizzle cakes are usually topped with a glaze made of caster sugar and lemon juice, I do more of a lemon icing on mine. I’m one of those “frosting is the best part of any cake” people, so it just felt right, when developing this recipe!

Ingredients

If you do much in the way of gluten free baking, you’ll find that this easy recipe uses fairly simple ingredients.

If not, the bulk of them are basic ingredients that can be found in any grocery store, the flours are usually easier to find in larger grocery stores, sometimes in the health food section.

A few notes for you:

Gluten-Free Flour Mixture

As with all of my gluten-free baking, I use a gluten-free flour blend - measured from individual flours - which I design for each recipe, specifically.

I’m not a fan of premade gluten free “all purpose flour” mixes - they tend to use the cheapest flours and starches possible, and don’t mimic the use of wheat flour at all.

All that rice flour and starch tends to lead to undesirable textures, and it doesn’t really taste like much.

The gluten free flours I use for making gluten-free muffins are good quality, taste much better than regular flour, and produce a nice, soft cake without much fuss, wait time, etc.

It also ends up to be FAR cheaper than using the pre-mixes.

I use:

Light Buckwheat Flour
Sorghum Flour
Coconut Flour
Xanthan Gum

If you like baking quick breads and muffins , know that this is my go-to blend for these kinds of recipes, so you can definitely get some use out of them! They’re great to have on hand.

Fresh Lemons

This recipe gets its zesty lemon flavour from 2 fresh lemons, in the form of both fresh lemon juice, and lemon zest.

I recommend zesting the lemons before juicing them, it’s far easier that way.

Also, be sure to not throw out the remaining lemon juice after measuring it for the loaf - you’ll be using it to make the sweet lemon drizzle!

Milk

You can use whatever form of milk you like for this recipe.

For dairy milk, whole milk or 2% milk are both fine.

For dairy-free milk, almond milk, coconut milk, oat milk, cashew milk, and flax milk are all great options that we’ve used.

As pictured, I use unsweetened almond milk for this batch.

Vegetable Oil

While I usually use melted butter in a lot of my regular baking - and cakes usually start with softened butter - I like to use oil for baking gluten-free quick breads and muffins.

I find it retains a nicer texture, even straight from the fridge - salted or unsalted butter tend to lead to a more dry texture at cooler temperatures.

I use just basic vegetable oil, but you can use any neutral flavoured oil - canola oil and avocado oil are great options.

Olive oil has a bit too robust of a flavour for this recipe, IMHO, and melted coconut oil tends to run into the same temperature issue as using butter, so I generally avoid it for this.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

1 cup Confectioner’s Sugar / Icing Sugar/ Powdered Sugar
Granulated sugar
Vanilla Yogurt (Can use sour cream instead)
Whole Eggs (Large size)
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt

... I just don’t have anything else to say about these ingredients!

How to Make Gluten-Free Lemon Drizzle Cake

The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the visual walk through.

Gluten Free Lemon Loaf

Preheat oven temperature to 350 F. Grease 1 regular/large loaf pan, or line with parchment paper / greaseproof paper. I do both:

Pour cake batter into prepared pan.

Bake for about 50-55 minutes, or until crust is a rich golden brown, and knife inserted into middle of the cake comes out clean.

For best results, be sure to not overbake it. Take the loaf out as soon as it passes the clean knife /toothpick test!

Lemon Glaze

In a small bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and salt.

Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, whisking until smooth. You want it VERY thick, but you can add extra lemon juice if you need.

Leftovers

Leftovers can be cooled to room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap - or transferred to an airtight container - and stored in the fridge for 5 days or so.

Best served at room temperature or - ideally - warmer.

More Gluten-Free Breakfast & Brunch Recipes

Looking for more breakfast food recipes for the whole family? Here are some fun options:

Gluten Free Apple Pancakes with Caramel Apple Topping
Gluten-Free Bagels
Gluten Free Banana Bread
Gluten-Free Banana Muffins
Gluten Free Banana Nutella Ebelskivers
Gluten-Free Blackberry Muffins
Gluten-Free Blueberry Banana Bread
Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins
Breakfast Meatloaf
Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Bread
Gluten Free Cranberry Walnut Muffins
Gluten Free Crepes
Gluten Free Eggless Banana Bread
Gluten-Free French Onion Soup Tart
Gluten Free Lemon Mascarpone Ebelskivers
Gluten-Free Mushroom Soup & Eggs on Toast
Gluten Free Paska [Easter Bread]
Gluten-Free Pop-Tarts
Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins
Gluten-Free Sourdough Waffles
Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

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