Italian Lemon Almond Cake Recipe
This simple lemon–almond cake is reminiscent of Italian cakes served with afternoon coffee – moist, fragrant with lemon zest and lightly nutty. It’s not overly sweet, so it works great both as a dessert and as a sweet Italian‑style breakfast.
These simple, moist citrus cakes are especially popular in northern and central Italy, where they often replace a breakfast cornetto. The almonds refer to the baking traditions of Liguria and the south, where nuts and citrus are a natural pairing.
This lemon–almond cake smells like an Italian café at 4 p.m. – a mix of fresh lemon zest and warm, nutty almond notes. It’s moist yet light, more like an elegant breakfast torte than a heavy cream cake. Thanks to its moderate sweetness, it works just as well with a morning espresso as it does as dessert after dinner with friends.
Why this version works
- Almond flour replaces part of the wheat flour, so the cake stays moist yet stable and slices cleanly.
- Creaming the butter with the sugar aerates the batter, so the cake rises evenly without needing a lot of baking powder.
- Using lemon both as zest and juice gives a deep aroma without making the cake overly tart.
- A small 22 cm tin gives just the right height – the centre bakes through before the edges dry out.
Chef's tips
Grate only the yellow part of the lemon zest – the white pith underneath is bitter and will spoil the cake’s delicate flavour. All ingredients should be at room temperature so the cake rises evenly and doesn’t crack too much in the centre. Be careful not to overbake – check with a skewer towards the end of the baking time, and as soon as it comes out dry, take the tin out of the oven, as the cake will continue to cook a little in its own heat.
How to serve
Serve slightly cooled, dusted with icing sugar, with a cup of strong stovetop coffee or Earl Grey tea. For special occasions you can add a dollop of whipped cream and a few fresh raspberries or slices of candied lemon. It’s the perfect cake to set out on the table for a Sunday family gathering, when everyone comes back for “just a thin slice” and the tin is empty within an hour.
Watch out for
- Do not grate the white pith under the lemon zest – it will add bitterness that will overpower the almonds.
- Do not mix for long after adding the flour, otherwise the gluten will develop and the cake will be tougher.
- If your oven browns heavily from the top, loosely cover the cake with foil towards the end of baking.
- Do not cut the cake while it is still warm – it will crumble and it will be hard to remove the first slice.
Substitutions
- You can replace part of the butter (about 40 g) with mild olive oil – the cake will be even more moist.
- If you don’t have almond flour, finely grind blanched almonds in a blender, but not to a paste.
- You can partially replace the lemon with orange for a milder, sweeter citrus aroma.
Ingredients
- ground almonds (almond flour) you can grind blanched almonds - 120 g
- flour type 450–550 - 130 g
- sugar - 130 g
- butter soft, at room temperature - 120 g
- eggs at room temperature - 3 piece
- lemon zest and juice - 1 piece
- baking powder - 1.5 teaspoons
- pinch of salt
- sugar for sprinkling, optional - 1 tablespoon
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (top and bottom heat). Line a springform tin about 22 cm in diameter with baking paper or grease with butter and dust with flour, tapping out the excess – the sides should be only lightly coated.
- Beat the soft butter with the sugar in a bowl using a mixer for 3–4 minutes, until the mixture is noticeably lighter in colour and as fluffy as a cream; there should be no visible lumps of butter on the sides of the bowl.
- Add the eggs one at a time, briefly mixing after each addition just until combined. If the mixture curdles slightly and looks grainy, that’s fine – it will smooth out once you add the dry ingredients.
- Wash the lemon thoroughly and scald it with boiling water. Finely grate only the yellow part of the zest and add it to the batter, then pour in 2–3 tablespoons of juice without seeds and mix briefly until the liquid is absorbed.
- In a separate bowl, mix the wheat flour, ground almonds, baking powder and a pinch of salt until the mixture is uniform and there are no visible clumps of baking powder.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix with a spatula or on the lowest mixer speed only until you no longer see dry flour. The batter should be thick but smooth and slightly pourable.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spoon or spatula. The surface should be even, without dips or streaks of unmixed flour.
- Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the top is golden, the edges just start to pull away from the tin, and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out dry or with a few moist crumbs, but no traces of raw batter.
- Remove the tin from the oven, leave it to stand for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cake onto a wire rack and let it cool completely. Before serving, dust with a light layer of icing sugar, just lightly whitening the top.
Storage
Store the cooled cake wrapped in cling film or in an airtight container at room temperature for 1–2 days, or in the fridge for up to several days. You can also freeze individual slices, well wrapped, and thaw them at room temperature when needed.
This is one of those cakes I bake when I have guests in the middle of the week – I usually have the ingredients in the cupboard, and the smell of lemon fills the whole flat. I often slice it the next day for breakfast and eat it quickly at my laptop instead of a sandwich.
