I am so excited about sharing this cake recipe with you guys! It is absolutely delicious!
This cake is moist, dense, full of zesty lemon flavour and topped with crunchy pistachios and a lemon glaze. If you like lemon then you will love this cake.
I used my Orange, Almond & Pistachio cake (which always receives rave reviews from you guys) as inspiration for the base of this recipe.
3 lemons are boiled in water for an hour until they are completely soft and then the center of the lemon is scooped out and pureed in a blender. Adding the pureed lemon to the cake batter gives the cake a much richer lemon flavour then you would get by using just lemon juice or zest.
I think that this Pistachio and Lemon Cake has the perfect balance of tart and sweet, so you could just as easily eat it for breakfast as you could for afternoon tea or dessert. It also freezes really well, and it a great cake to have stashed in your freezer to bring out when you need something to serve to guests.
This really does not taste like a “healthy” cake, so whether you are following a grain free diet, or just looking for something to serve to friends, this Paleo Pistachio and Lemon Cake is for you.
Here are a few other dessert recipes that you might enjoy!
- Lemon Layered Cake with Strawberry Filling and Ombre Icing
- Pumpkin Mug Cake
- Carrot Cake Mug Cake
- Upside Down Banana Bread in a Skillet
- Lemon & Mixed Berry Cupcakes
If you make this recipe let me know in the comment section below, I would love to hear what you think or take a photo and tag me (@everylastbite_) on Instagram, I love seeing your photos!
Pistachio & Lemon Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 lemons
- 1 cup ground pistachios (approx 1 1/4 cup whole pistachios)
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup honey
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Lemon Glaze
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
Topping
- 1/4 cup toasted pistachios roughly chopped
Instructions
- Rinse the lemons and place them in a pot. Cover with water and simmer on low heat for 1 hour. After 1 hour remove the lemons from the pot, cut them in half to remove the seeds and use a spoon to scoop out the inner flesh into a blender. Blend until the lemons have formed a puree
- Place the pistachios in a food processor and grind until there are no chunky pieces and everything has ground down to a fine powder.
- Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). Grease a loose bottom 9 inch cake pan
- In a bowl combine the pureed lemon, eggs, honey, ground pistachios, almond flour, vanilla extract and baking soda. Pour into the greased cake pan
- Bake for 1 hour. If the top begins to brown too quickly, cover with tinfoil. The cake will be done once a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, in a small pot combine the ingredients for the lemon glaze and heat until melted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake and then sprinkle with chopped pistachios
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a comment below and let us know how it was!
Hi – thanks for this recipe, really great moist lemony nutty cake.
After boiling the lemons, I pulped the inner flesh & removed the seeds. I did not use the skin of the lemon & it was Fantastic & family loved it.
Just reading through this post made my mouth water. Trying this over the weekend.
I made this today, and really loved it. Will post on Instagram!
Unfortunately a really disappointing receipe. No taste at all!
So I made this for my in-laws Anniversary. I was disappointed because like others said it was bitter. I thought when I read their reviews that maybe they had done something wrong, but I think it comes down to cooking the lemons. Perhaps if I had added them raw it would have been good.Â
I love everything else about the cake, the texture and nuttiness, but the bitterness overpowered the cake. I also think the drizzle is what gives the cake it’s moistness, so don’t leave that out. Even though I didn’t like the taste of the glaze alone, it married well with the cake.
We ended up drizzling chocolate sauce on the cake just to make it edible.Â
I must be missing something, but I don’t see what size pan this cake is for. Would you please advise?  Thank you so much.Â
Just took cake out of oven and the edges are burned. The recipe says two hours to bake. I had in for 40 minutes, good thing I checked. Â Expensive recipe to toss in trash.Â
It says to bake for 1 hour, not 2.
Would this work with quinoa flour instead of almond?
Unfortunately I havent tried it so I can’t confirm whether it would work out. Sorry!
My friend made this for me since I can’t eat gluten and dairy. Fabulous! Moist, beautiful texture and lovely lemon. I ate two pieces and plan to have more for breakfast!  Thank you for a great recipe that no one would ever guess was gluten and dairy free.Â
Thanks for sharing Carmen, I love the recipe!Â
Thanks for the comment! So happy you liked it!