Gluten-free Almond, Raspberry and Lemon Loaf

An easy flourless lemon loaf, studded with bursts of zingy raspberries and lightened with a whipped cream topping

I often have leftover fruit, from other baking adventures, which I need to use up. Here, there were left over lemons and raspberries from my lemon curd and raspberry chiffon cake.

What I love about baking is how you can achieve similar flavour profiles, with very different textures and a very different looking end product. In contrast to the soft and spongy nature of a chiffon cake, this flourless loaf is far more dense and buttery, having a much tighter crumb. This allows the raspberries to stud the loaf beautifully, without sinking to the bottom, as the loaf bakes.

You can definitely play around with the citrus used here, so why not try orange or lime instead! The topping is also customisable, or if you want a simpler bake, just a simple dusting of icing sugar on the top will be perfect. The possibilities are endless.

I have developed this recipe from one of my favourite go-to, gluten-free recipes by Belinda Jeffery. The original recipe may be found here.

• How do I line my ordinary loaf tin? Here, I just grease the tin with butter and line it with baking paper. Leave a bit of baking paper hanging over the length of the tin, so that the loaf is easy to lift out. Let the cake cool in the tin for 30 minutes, before lifting out and transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Can I use gluten-free flour instead of almond flour? I tried substituting the two, in equal quantities and the recipe did not work. I do not have a great deal of experience with gluten-free flour, so not sure as to how the ratios should change.
• What happens if my batter curdles? This will most likely happen when adding the eggs. It is important to add in one egg at a time, and let it mix in well before adding the next egg. If it curdles however, simply continue with the recipe as is, it will fix itself when baking.
• Can I use other fruits instead of raspberries? Whilst I have not tested other fruit, I would imagine blueberries, blackberries and cherries would work fine. Strawberries have quite a high water content and release a lot of water as they bake, so I am unsure of how this will actually impact the bake.
• My cake is getting too brown on the top but not baked through yet. Oven temperatures vary greatly. When I set my oven to 180 degrees, an oven themometer reveals that it is actually heating to 200 degrees celcius! It is therefore important to know the true internal oven temperature, which can be solved by purchasing an oven thermometer. If the cake is getting too brown on the top without being baked, cover the top with a piece of foil to prevent it from browning.

If you make this recipe, please share it with me by tagging me on Instagram @adventureswithsugar or on Facebook at Adventures with Sugar. Please also leave a comment below to let me know how you got on with the recipe.

FOR THE GLUTEN-FREE ALMOND, RASPBERRY AND LEMON LOAF

• 180g salted butter, room temperature
• 220g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 4 large eggs
• 60ml lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 250g almond flour
• 150g raspberries, fresh or frozen

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper. Allow for a slight overhang along the length so that the cake can be easily lifted out of the tin.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest until pale and fluffy, about five minutes.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated. Only add the next egg once the current one is well incorporated.
4. Add in the vanilla essence, lemon juice, salt and almond flour and fold through until well combined.
5. Add a third of the batter to the tin, then place half the raspberries randomly into the batter. Place another third and repeat with the remaining raspberries and finally, the last bit of batter.
6. Bake for 40 – 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
7. Let the cake cool in the tin for 30 minutes, before removing from the tin and leaving to cool completely.

FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING

• 150ml whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar
• 100g raspberries, for decorating
• 2 tablespoons flaked almonds, toasted
• lemon zest, to garnish

METHOD

1. Place the whipped cream in a bowl, and whip until soft peaks form. Add in the icing sugar and whip until you have stiff peaks.
2. Spread the whipped cream over the top of the cooled loaf.
3. Dress with raspberries and flaked almonds, as desired and finish off with lemon zest.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com