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This almond flour cake is so light and fluffy that you won’t believe how easy it is to make. With just four ingredients, it’s easy and elegant!
Love almond flour recipes? Try my almond flour brownies, almond flour cookies, and almond flour muffins.
Using almond flour instead of wheat flour for cakes completely transforms the texture. It yields a lighter, crumb, and fluffier texture and doesn’t leave you feeling heavy or bloated afterward. My classic almond flour cake recipe is a dessert staple in my home, and I have no doubt it will be in your home too!
Table of Contents
Why I love this recipe
- It’s made with just 4 key ingredients, making it such an easy dessert to make.
- Everything is mixed in one bowl, so there is virtually no clean up required.
- It’s easily made, low-carb, and/or sugar-free, making it a fabulous keto dessert. No sugar and no grains are needed, but you’d never tell.
- The texture is light, fluffy, and with a gorgeous crumb. It’s sweet and with a slight lemon flavor, without being overpowering.
Ingredients needed
- Almond flour. You must use blanched almond flour. While almond meal can work, it won’t yield a soft and moist crumb.
- Eggs. room temperature and separated.
- Sugar. White or brown sugar works or sugar substitutes, like allulose. If you use brown sugar or coconut sugar, expect your cake to be darker in color.
- Lemon zest. grated from a fresh lemon. Do not use dried or freeze-dried lemon.
- Powdered sugar and sliced almonds. It’s optional, but it makes a fabulous garnish and looks pretty, too!
How to make an almond flour cake
I’ve included step-by-step photos below to make this recipe easy to follow at home. For the full printable recipe instructions and ingredient quantities, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Step 1- Make the batter. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick and creamy. Add the almond flour and lemon zest and fold through until incorporated. Next, in a separate mixing bowl, beat together the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter until combined.
Step 2- Transfer the batter to a greased cake pan. If using almonds, add them on top of the cake.
Step 3- Bake for around 30 minutes or until the top is golden and firm.
Step 4- Cool in the pan for 20 minutes before carefully inverting it onto a large plate. Once cooled to room temperature, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
Arman’s recipe tips
- Do not over-bake the cake, as it continues to cook as it is cooling down.
- Be sure to use flaked/sliced almonds to top the cake, not whole almonds. The latter will sink into the batter while it is cooking.
- Your cake must be cooled completely before flipping it, or else you risk the cake falling apart.
- If you’d like to make a thicker cake (as pictured), use a 7-inch or 8-inch cake pan. If you prefer a thinner cake (like the video in the recipe card), use a 9-inch cake pan.
Dietary swaps and variations
- Make it keto-friendly. Use a sugar substitute, like allulose or brown sugar substitute.
- Add some frosting. Spread a light layer of cream cheese or vanilla frosting.
- Make it without eggs. Instead of egg whites and egg yolks, try one of these egg substitutes.
- Add anise extract. Some traditional almond flour cakes have this in their ingredients, so add 1/2 teaspoon.
- Add some coconut flavor. Add some coconut extract and shredded coconut flakes for some added texture and flavor.
Storage instructions
To store: Leftover cake can be stored at room temperature, covered, for up to 1 week. If you’d like it to keep longer, you can store it in the refrigerator.
To freeze: Place the cake in a shallow container and store it in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unlike other flours, almond flour is the most similar to cake or wheat flour. You can substitute cake flour with almond flour on a cup-to-cup basis.
Almond flour doesn’t make cakes moist, but it yields a lighter and fluffier texture. The milk, eggs, and/or liquid ingredients, in combination with butter or oil, affect how moist a cake is.
No, you cannot substitute the almond flour with coconut flour. They both have different baking properties. If you’d like a cake with coconut, try making a coconut flour cake.
More baking with almond flour
Almond Flour Cake (4 Ingredients!)
Video
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 4 large eggs separated
- 1/2 cup sugar * See notes
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds optional
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease an 8-inch cake pan and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine your almond flour, egg yolks, sugar, and lemon zest, and mix well. In a separate bowl, beat together your egg whites until stiff peaks form.
- Fold through your egg whites until combined. Transfer the cake mixture into the greased cake pan and top with sliced almonds.
- Bake the cake for 30 minutes, or until tender on top. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes, before carefully invert onto a plate and sprinkling with powdered sugar.
I made this cake for my sister. She can’t have gluten or dairy. This is a top notch cake recipe! We all enjoyed it. I added chopped pecans to the batter and didn’t top it with the almonds. It was amazing and very moist! Thank you!!!
I put peaches on top and it was great!
Absolutely delicious. Thanks so much from this Celiac. 🙂
I made the cake yesterday and it was finished by the end of the day! We loved it! It’s moist, very light, airy and almond flour crumbles gives it a great texture. Ingredients are right but not the recipe. Make it just like a sponge cake recipe, add almond powder at the end. Mix egg yolk & sugar until light yellow color, mix egg white until foamy, fold the two together and then add and fold in almond powder Don’t mix almond flour and egg yolk together. It obviously turns into a paste and difficult to mix with egg white plus that the texture doesn’t turn right. Bon Appetite!!
Great tip.
Awesomely good
Hello Arman and bakers,
Has anyone tried this as an upside-down cake? I’m thinking peaches.
Thanks!
Carola
Not sure! Perhaps a reader has
Was delish with nectarines on the bottom. Thanks!!
Thank you for this recipe…I cannot believe how awesome this simple cake is !! I could eat it forever…in the fall I bought some Almond flour because I wanted to make an almond layer cake…changed my mind and then saw the expiration date on my bag if almond flour was just about ready to expire …so I found your recipe and gave it a try !! I am so glad I did !! P.S. plus almond flour is expensive
Excellent, simple and delicious recipe. I didn’t have the almond flakes, but I did have some frozen cherries from summer which I baked on top and it came out perfectly! Recipe is perfect, not too sweet, just enough to love without too much guilt!
Amazing recipe! I’m a chef and always looking for new win healthy recipes and this one didn’t disappoint 👌🏻for a healthier version, I replaced sugar with maple syrup and added banana on top w cinnamon! Yummy!!
Has anyone tried this with sugar substitute?
I added 1/4 tsp almond extract to the cake and 1/2 tsp of cream of tarter to make the egg whites stiffer. Making the cake lighter. Additionally I had no almonds but used some toasted pine nuts on top. Love this recipe.
Excellent recipe. Easy to prepare. Needed something gluten-free for pineapple upside-down cake and this was perfect (minus the powdered sugar and almonds).
I love you recipes thanks for share very healthy God blessed you !!
This cake was a success! I love that it has so few ingredients and yet it is not lacking in flavor nor volume. I made it to use up some almond flour that was about ready to expire. I had never made anything with this type of flour before and was a bit skeptical to start off with. But, you have made me a believer now! I did not have the optional aniseed extract, but since I love that flavor and I had ground aniseed I used some of that. I think in the future I would like to try using both almond extract (which I always have on hand) AND orange extract and use orange zest in place of lemon zest–just for something a bit different. I’ll bet that will taste wonderful too! I look forward to trying more of your recipes!
Amazing!!!!!