Lighter Lemon and Blueberry Cake with a Lemon Glaze

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This highly adaptable lighter lemon and blueberry cake has a fresh lemon glaze. It is gluten free (but can also be made with regular or spelt flour), and has less fat and reduced sugar. It’s light, moist and tastes delicious.

Continuing my healthier baking stretch, this time we have a healthier lemon and blueberry cake. I love cakes that are better for you. So satisfying to make.

Making great cakes with less butter and sugar

Cakes with less butter and sugar are challenging to make. There’s a reason why we often shove tons of sugar and butter in them. Baking is in reality a chemical reaction, so it we change integral parts of baking, we end up with very different results. Sugar isn’t only used for sweetening cakes; it has an important part in the post-baking process, too. The sugar helps create moisture in baked goods, and cakes with very little dry out very quickly. Similarly, butter not only gives cakes a richness, but if you remove it, your cake will definitely be more dense.

Lighter cake recipes

However, I’ve made some blinding cakes with less butter and sugar. Here are some of my favourite lighter cakes:

How Greek yoghurt helps provide moisture in cakes

So, can you have a great tasting cake with less butter and sugar? I’d say so. This lemon and blueberry cake is testament to that. Greek yoghurt helps compensate enormously for the reduction in butter, and gives reduced sugar cakes more moisture. Greek yoghurt provides a delightful tang to baked goods, but it also activates the baking soda, creating fluffier, lighter cakes. Greek yoghurt is also a lower fat alternative to similar things like sour cream, too.

Substitutions for gluten free flour

This recipe is an adaptation of my tried, tested and very well loved orange drizzle loaf. So, although this cake uses gluten free flour, it can easily be made with regular (plain) flour or spelt flour (of course). I used a gluten free flour blend, which means you can just do a straight swap with whichever flour you’d like to use.

Touching again on the subject of making changes to cakes, gluten plays an important part in the baking process. So, although gluten free blends these days are excellent, the texture will be different than cakes made with all-purpose or even spelt flour.

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Lemon and Blueberry Cake (GF, low fat, reduced sugar)

Ingredients

Cake:

50g (¼ cup) brown sugar
3 eggs (medium)
2 tbs honey
3 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
60ml (¼ cup) Greek yoghurt
60ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil
140g (1 cup + 1 tbsp) gluten free flour blend (see note 1)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
75g (¾ cup) blueberries (see note 2)

Glaze:

1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs icing sugar

Instructions

Cake:

Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (350ºF).
Whisk the sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy.
Add the honey, lemon juice, vanilla, yoghurt and oil, and beat until smooth.
Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder together and add to the wet ingredients, stirring well.
Lastly, gently stir in the blueberries (see note 2).
Pour into a prepared loaf tin - mine was 25cm x 12cm (9¾" x 4¾") and bake for around 30-40 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. If the top is browning too quickly, just place a sheet of foil over the top.
Leave to cool in the tin for a while, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Glaze:

While still warm, mix the sugar and lemon juice for the glaze.
With a knife, gently poke holes in the top of the cake and pour the glaze over. Slice and serve. Enjoy!

Notes

This recipe was originally created for my former blog, The Culinary Jumble. The recipe, post and images have all been updated slightly since then.

The original recipe called for gluten free flour. However, if you'd like to use spelt or regular flour instead, just do a straight swap.
I used frozen blueberries, but you can use fresh. Alternatively, use another kind of berry (raspberries or blackberries would be awesome).

I have converted grams to cups/ounces/tablespoons using online converters. Although I have no reason to believe they are inaccurate, please be aware that I have not made this recipe with imperial measurements.