This Spelt Zucchini and Lemon Cake is a beautiful, moist, dairy free cake with a fresh zing of lemon. And it is a wonderful way to get kids to eat their vegetables!
As far as vegetable cakes go it is hard to beat a good carrot cake, but I think this Spelt, Zucchini and Lemon Cake comes a close second.
When my husband and I were shopping the other weekend we came across a cafe that offered a wonderful looking spelt, zucchini and lemon cake for sale.
Maybe I'm cheap, but when I saw that the price tag was almost $10 a slice I decided to head home and attempt to recreate my own, which I managed to do for well under $10.
After a couple of attempts, which ended up being too moist, this beautiful cake is the end result.
I've used wholemeal spelt flour in this cake, but previous versions used white spelt flour.
I think the cake is better with wholemeal spelt as it adds a slight nuttiness to the cake, and adds to its rustic charm.
While you could serve this cake naked, or with a dust of icing sugar, or even a cream cheese frosting if you can tolerate dairy (which I cant), I've opted for a glaze of icing sugar, a small amount of lemon zest and lemon juice.
You could even slice the cake horizontally and add icing or frosting in the middle to fancy things up a bit. But for me this is the perfect afternoon tea cake to serve with a cup of tea.
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📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 150 g coconut oil, 5 ¼ oz
- 275 g raw sugar, 1¼ cups
- 3 eggs
- 300 g zucchini, grated
- zest and juice of 2 large lemons
- 300 g wholemeal spelt flour, 2 cups
- 60 g almond meal, ½ cup, ground almonds
- 1 teaspoon ½ baking powder
- teaspoon ½ bicarb soda, baking
- GLAZE:
- ½ cup icing sugar
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- juice of half a lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 celsius (350 Fahrenheit) and grease a 23cm (9 inch) cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.
- Place the coconut oil, sugar and eggs in a bowl and whisk to combine. Stir through the zucchini, lemon juice and zest. Place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and ground almonds in a separate bowl and stir to combine. Add the dry mixture to the wet and mix until well combined.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until cooked. Remove the cake from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the glaze mix the icing sugar, lemon zest and juice until you have a pourable consistency. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake.
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef says
At $10 a slice I'd try making my own too. I love cakes with vegetables because they're most always moist and tender and that's how I really enjoy them. Your cake is really pretty.
Jennifer Schmidt says
$10 a slice is just outrageous to me! And they probably would have gotten 12 to 14 slices out of the cake. That makes it a $140 cake! I'd much rather a whole cake for under $10 😀
Lisa says
This looks amazing! I am also dairy-free, but can tolerate eggs, so I think I'll be giving this one a go. I would never pay $10 for a slice in a cafe, though....
Jennifer Schmidt says
Thanks Lisa 😀 I'm glad I'm not alone in refusing to pay $10 a slice for cake in a cafe.
Rosa says
A beautiful and tempting cake! This is a great recipe.Wow, 10$ a slice. That is a rip-off! I'm sure your cake tastes better...Cheers,Rosa
Naomi Teeter says
I don't think I've ever baked with spelt flour before. So, this will be an adventure! This recipe would be great for a summer get together I think. Thanks for sharing!!
giulia says
This is a perfect cake for my dairy free friend! I'll be trying it out asap. Giulia xx
zonderzooi says
Just found your blog and realise you're the queen of cakes, this one looks like heaven too! I'm so bad in creating cake recipes myself, I always end up with a really dry cake. That's the reason why I mostly make raw cakes, never can go wrong haha.
Dalma says
Made it. Replaced 1/3 of the zucchini with carrot, cos I did not have enough zucchini. Also, put some cinnamon in hope of it tasting like a carrot cake. Replaced the raw sugar, whatever that is with Sverve, half of the sugar amount. Well. It did not taste like carrot cake, but it tasted like a very moist coffe-cake. I also put some chopped walnuts in the batter, it was great! I will make this again, thank you!
Nicole says
Thanks! Great experimenting - I will have to try your version.
Kasey says
Just made this and it turned out really good . I made them into muffins for the kids , I changed the oil to sunflower oil as I had no coconut oil . They were light and fluffy , moist and sweet enough that the kids won’t know there’s vegetable in it . Definitely be baking these again. Thank you
Nicole says
I love the idea of making these into muffins - I may have to try that out for my son!
maryann casalina says
I will try this recipe, my son cannot eat bread, flour , and mostly everything that has phosphates, almost everything you grocery shop for. His nephrologist says his kidney can tolerate spelt which is an ancient food, so I will attempt it for this christmas..I not the best cake maker, but I've been told my butter cookies are the very best.