A paleo lemon almond snack cake with almond flour and sweet spices that’s perfect for breakfast, snack, or any time!
When I picked Drew up at school and told him I’d made a cake, but without frosting, he wasn’t exactly thrilled, as you might imagine. He’s 4 after all, and all cakes have frosting or else why the hell even bother, right? Well, we discussed this in depth, because that’s what parents and preschoolers do all day long – discuss the intricacies and wonders of this scary world we live in that sometimes omits frosting – I could write a whole post on this but I’ll spare you, at least for now.
Anyway, we came to the conclusion that the lack of frosting made this a “snack cake”, not a “dessert cake” as in your typical buttercream birthday cake. We generally don’t eat frosting on our snacks so putting it in this category works. I asked myself repeatedly during the 15 minute discussion why I didn’t just make this recipe in muffin cups to avoid all the drama. But I think this was a good lesson on being flexible and eating “cake” without frosting sometimes.
Of course he announced to the girls when they got home “mommy made a cake! But it has NO FROSTING! IT’S A SNACK!” You seriously just cannot predict what will pop out as the “theme of the day” with three kids. But, thanks to Drew, a name for this recipe was born and the drama was worth it.
A bit more about this snack cake – it’s paleo, sweetened with organic coconut sugar, and jazzed up with cinnamon and ginger, so you won’t miss the frosting at all. Okay look, don’t tell my kids but I’m sure you can top it with any sort of frosting you want and it will be fabulous. As if you needed my permission 😉
Lemon Almond Snack Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/3 cup tapioca starch
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 3/4 cup organic coconut sugar
- 3 tbsp coconut oil melted and cooled slightly
- 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1 and 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8 x 8 inch baking dish lightly with coconut oil
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In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, tapioca, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
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In a larger bowl, combine the eggs, coconut sugar, coconut oil, lemon juice, ginger, allspice and cinnamon and beat well
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Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet to fully combine.
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Transfer the mixture to the prepare baking dish, and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Let cool, then cut into squares and enjoy!
As a side note that’s not recipe related at all, I JUST realized it’s easy to edit photos to add text and graphics with a website like Pic Monkey. I might be the stupidest blogger of all bloggers ever to blog but I am just starting to catch on to so many of these “techie” things and still have no clue what I’m doing most of the time.
Do you like that I put text on my first photo ever on this blog? I actually picked the font without consciously realizing it’s the same one my theme uses. At least I’m consistent in my taste? Forget that it’s like three words, I am still feeling very odd and self conscious about the whole thing, what the hell is wrong with me? And didn’t I just ask you guys that three days ago?
Do you consider cake without frosting cake at all or am I way off base?
What’s one topic your kids have insisted discussing in depth that has made you feel crazy?
Do you like “decorating” your online photos? What do you use to do this?
I love using pic monkey! I think I learned about it when I first started blogging. I don’t use it to edit so much as to make collages or add text to pictures
Recipe looks good! Nice save with making it a “snack cake” vs “dessert cake”…that actually makes alot of sense plus it would make me feel better about eating it at any time of day:)
Better late than never for me I guess 🙂 And this is good to eat any time!
I remember when I first discovered all the wonders I could do with pic monkey… I felt so silly that I didn’t realise I could do it before! Haha!
And a cake that’s moist and juicy definitely does not need frosting, frosting is only needed on a bland and boring sponge – hence why most only eat the frosting!
I am way late but not surprising given my lack of tech knowledge 🙂 And this cake is so good without!
LOVE pic monkey! It makes me feel like I know what I am doing lol. It’s a great editing program if you ask me…Cake totally needs frosting but when I make snack cakes, they don’t have frosting so there is clearly a difference. Do you know there’s a new naked wedding cake trend? No frosting. I don’t get it!
Oh I totally have no clue what I’m doing on the internet and just barely feel my way around! Naked wedding cake sounds a little bit sad! Weddings and birthdays call for frosting!
I may have the only kids in the world that doesn’t like frosting. So, cake without frosting is still cake 🙂
Your recipe looks delicious Michele!
Thank you! One of my daughter’s doesn’t love frosting, she’s also my most “paleo” so not surprising 🙂
Um, yum. Sometimes I think of frostingless cakes as cake like breads. But I think that if there is enough sweetness and a certain spongy quality, it can easily still be a cake!
Basically a quick bread, or coffee cake I think would be the same thing. But snack cake is a bit more kid friendly 🙂
That’s funny your picture label was the first thing I noticed! You definite want to label or watermark otherwise people steal them. Recipe sound delicious and can I used your kids to tell me what to call my recipes? It sounds like you have a blog team you need to tap into more!
I thought for some reason it was complicated to do that, clearly I’m late on all things involving computers and internet 🙂 And funny because they do like naming recipes, but that’s about it. They also like when their pictures show up on the blog 🙂
haha yes i love the font, but i love the sound of these bars more! GIMME!
Thanks! They are yummy 🙂
Looks delicious! What is your favorite almond flour to use for recipes like this?
I use Bob Red Mill’s blanched almond flour, I’ve actually never used another brand, I like it a lot. And thank you!
Haha. I love that cake without frosting = a snack… I feel like I should use this more frequently to justify dessert being a snack, and not a dessert : ) I used to consider any cake (ginger cake, lemon cake) cake/dessert even though it didn’t have frosting but I really like Drew’s interpretation!
You can totally eat it whenever if there’s no frosting. Like for breakfast, there is no reason not to 🙂
Haha, I never understood snack cake. It seemed like a sweet quick bread to me. Regardless any sweet bready baked good is a winner!
Yup, that’s exactly what it is, but snack cake sounds more fun I guess 🙂