Lemon Almond Cake

A large and delicious lemon almond cake, made with ground almonds and wholemeal spelt flour. It’s moist and buttery with a wondrous crunchy almond topping. Add flecks of dark or white chocolate for additional interest, if liked.

Updated September 2025 including a new “how to” section. This time around I’ve made the chocolate addition optional as I only sometimes add it. I’ve also added an option for infusing the cake with a fig leaf.

This lemon almond cake is the one I’d wanted to make for CTs birthday. He likes these flavours and they seem sort of light and summery somehow. Fates conspired as they often do and he ended up not getting a birthday cake at all. Well not until a bit later anyway.

Dive Right In

• Why You’ll Want To Make This Lemon Almond Cake
• Love a Good Silicone Mould
• Lovely Lemon Almond Cake
• How To Make Lemon Almond Cake
• How To Make A Fig Leaf Infused Lemon Almond Cake
• CT’s Birthday
• Other Lemon Cake Recipes You Might Like
• Keep In Touch
• Pin It
• The Recipe

Why You’ll Want To Make This Lemon Almond Cake?

There are so many reasons to love this lemon almond cake. Here are just a few that will make you want to bake it:

• Beautifully textured – the crunchy almond topping gives a delightful contrast to the soft, moist crumb.
• Bright lemony freshness – a generous hit of lemon zest and juice makes it light and refreshing. Perfect for any season.
• Crowd-pleasing – bakes up into a large cake that’s perfect for sharing at gatherings, celebrations or afternoon tea.
• Keeps well – stays fresh for a few days, so you can enjoy it well beyond the day of baking.
• Moist and flavoursome – the combination of ground almonds and butter keeps the cake tender with a rich, nutty taste.
• Versatile treat – equally good with a cup of tea, as it is a dessert with cream or yoghurt. Pairs well with fruit compote too.
• Wholesome twist – wholemeal spelt flour and ground almonds give depth of flavour and a slightly rustic, hearty texture. They also add fibre and protein whilst keeping the cake indulgent.

Love a Good Silicone Mould

I gave up on using cake tins years ago. I couldn’t be bothered with the faff of having to line them. Silicone moulds are just brilliant and I have a number of them. No need to line them and it’s rare that anything sticks to them.

I’ve been awaiting delivery of a much coveted silicone cake mould from the ingenious Mustard. I’ve seen several cakes made with it on the internet over the last few weeks and I was keen to try it for myself. Its scalloped edges resemble a daisy flower which cunningly, when cut into six slices, comes out in a series of heart shapes.

As well as being quite sturdy for a silicone mould, it’s nice and deep too. This means it can either make one very deep cake or it can be cut into two or even three layers and sandwiched with something delicious.

Other Recipes Using This Heart Cake Mould

• Almond apple cider cake via Tin and Thyme
• Black Forest cake at Elizabeth’s Kitchen
• Raspberry & gooseberry cake at The Caked Crusader
• Raspberry rose & almond cake at Belleau Kitchen

If this lemon almond cake isn’t enough to tempt you, have a look at some of my other large cake recipes. Or for something a bit more special, I have several layer cakes you might like.

Lovely Lemon Almond Cake

No sooner did it arrive than I was busy in the kitchen with bowl and wooden spoon, humming a tune as I whipped and folded. I dithered for a little as to whether I should use white or dark chocolate in this lemon almond cake.

I was going to use white initially as it’s nice to have a pale sponge from time to time. In the end, however, I thought a few flecks of very dark bitter chocolate would help take the edge off any sweetness.

I used cardamom sugar as it works really well with lemon and almonds. I always have a jar of it on the go in my kitchen. And, of course, I used my favourite baking flour, wholemeal spelt.

It was one of those days when everything seems to go wrong and it probably wasn’t the most auspicious time for making a cake. I managed to burn our first crop of beetroot and my favourite saucepan was a complete write-off.

I also managed to burn the top of the lemon almond cake a little too. Luckily, despite leaving it in the oven five minutes more than I’d intended, the slightly darkened top hid a light, moist, buttery and most delicious sponge. The top was in fact very tasty with a satisfying caramelised nutty crunch to it.

CT was so impressed he had to have a second slice immediately after finishing his first. That was a second of the half slices I hasten to add. The heart slices look really good, but they’re also on the generous side. Half a slice of this rather large cake would be fine for most people, though obviously not for CT.

Updates

PS – When I sampled the lemon almond cake again on day two, I came to the conclusion that this is one of the most delicious cakes I’ve baked in a long time. It must be that heart – I’m in love.

PPS – Having made this lemon almond cake several times since, I’ve been careful not to burn the top. I don’t always add the chocolate and this last time I baked it with a fig leaf – just to try something different.

How To Make Lemon Almond Cake

This is a very straightforward cake to make and you don’t need the I Love Cake Mould to bake it in. However, if you can get hold of one, it’s a fun piece of kit to use.

Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for cooking temperatures and quantities of ingredients used.

Step 1. Make Batter

Make sure your butter is suitably soft before commencing. If it’s soft enough it’s easy to cream the butter and sugar together by hand. This is my preferred method, but it’s fine to use an electric mixer if you like.

Use a large bowl and cream the butter and sugar together until they’re light in colour and fluffy in texture. Finely grate in the zest from the lemon and cream a little bit more.

Crack an egg into the bowl and beat it in. Repeat with the remaining eggs.

I like to add ground almonds at this point so that you can mix them in thoroughly without worry of overworking the batter. Once you add flour to the mix, you want to stir as little as possible to ensure you end up with a nice loose crumb.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda, then stir gently until everything is just mixed in.

Squeeze in the lemon juice and again stir in until it’s just incorporated into the batter.

Step 2. Transfer To Cake Tin

Line your cake tin with baking paper, if using or lightly grease your silicone mould.

Spoon or scrape your batter into the tin and level the top with the back of your spoon or spatular.

Scatter the flaked almonds over the top as evenly as you can manage. Follow this with the demerara sugar.

Step 3. Bake

Place the tin on the middle shelf of the oven and bake until well risen and golden on top. It’s done when it’s firm to the touch or a cake tester comes out clean.

Try not to over bake the cake and if the top looks as though it’s browning too quickly, cover it with some foil or baking paper.

Allow to cool in the tin for ten minutes then turn it out onto a rack covered with a clean tea towel or baking paper. This will stop the rack imprinting its pattern onto the cake.

Leave to cool, then invert cake onto a cake stand or serving plate. Serve on its own for afternoon tea or with cream or with cream and fruit compote for dessert.

The cake will keep in an air tight container for five days, as long as the air temperature isn’t too hot. The top will not stay crunchy though.

How To Make A Fig Leaf Infused Lemon Almond Cake

Fig leaves have a sort of vanillary coconut flavour that you can use to infuse cakes. I tried it out for the first time on this lemon almond cake. It worked really well and added to the overall flavour profile, without dominating it.

All you need to do is find a fresh fig leaf, Wash it, dry it, then place it on the bottom of your baking tin or silicone mould, top side up. Pile your cake batter over it and bake in the usual way.

When the cake has cooled, simply peel the fig leaf off.

CT’s Birthday

Despite a really busy week at work I managed to take the day off for CT’s birthday. In true botanist style, he chose to spend the day visiting gardens and nurseries in and around the English Riviera. In other words, across the border and into Devon.

Amazingly it didn’t rain and we had a lovely day.

We had lunch at The Coombe Cellars, a pub restaurant right on the banks of the River Teign. The food was really good and the setting was lovely.

As well as a celebratory glass of Pimms, we finished up with a sharing dessert platter, which really is the most decadent way to enjoy pudding.

Other Lemon Cake Recipes You Might Like

• Citrus drizzle cake (vegan)
• Lemon caraway seed cake
• Lemon coconut cakes with freekah flour
• Matcha green tea & lemon madeleines
• Poppy seed & lemon traybake
• Simple lemon curd cake

Keep in Touch

Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this lemon almond cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for making almond cakes?

I’d very much appreciate it if you could rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, please use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.

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If you’d like more lemon recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.

Choclette x

Lemon Almond Cake. PIN IT.

Sharing

This lemon almond cake was a belated birthday cake for CT whose birthday is at the height of summer. As the heart shaped slices denote love, I’m sending one to Calendar Cakes where the theme is Summer Lovin. This is a monthly challenge hosted alternately by Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes.

It just so happens that this month’s Love Cake theme over at JibberJabberUK is Feeling Fruity. So this lemony cake is winging its way in that direction.

I’m also sending this off to AlphaBakes as the letter is L for Lemon this month. This monthly challenge is hosted over at The More Than Occasional Baker.