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Before I dive into todayās sweet recipe, I want to share my most recent cookbook with you, Healthier Chocolate Treats! The cookbook contains 50+ brand new, exclusive recipes for breakfasts, snacks and desserts. Each recipe comes with a color photograph and the Nutrition Information, as well as a separate section for Notes and Substitutions, exactly like you find here on my blog. However, none of these recipes will ever appear on my blogāyou can only find them in my Healthier Chocolate Treats cookbook! I share many more details with you here, and you can buy a hardback copy here on Amazon for $29.95 or pre-order a digital copy here for $15.99 (to be released June 1, 2016).
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart! I couldnāt have published the cookbook without your interest and support for my blog and my recipes. You made this dream of mine a reality, and I am so grateful!Ā ā„
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A few weeks after I turned ten, my family and I moved across town to larger fifty-year-old house with wooden floors and ceilings, along with sprawling front and backyards with plenty of green grass for children to play. The woman who lived there before us loved to garden, so she filled both spaces with as many bushes, flowers, and trees as you can imagine. Dad actually walked around and counted at least sixty (if not closer to eighty) trees! Ā
While the majority of them were fairly normal for our part of California, she also planted quite a few fruit trees: green apple, orange, peach, plum, fig, avocado, grapefruit, kumquat, and three lemons. One of them bore lemons the size of softballsāalmost too big to fit in my ten-year-old hands!āwhile the others produced our favorite, slightly sweeter Meyer lemons.
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That summer, we pulled plenty of those Meyer lemons off of the trees nearly every week, sometimes to squeeze on fresh salads or pasta dishes, but usually to turn into lemonade. We found Momās juicer in one of the kitchen boxes we unpacked in mid-July, putting it to use as often as we could, and we loved spending our afternoons running through the backyard sprinklers, playing badminton, and sipping on icy cold homemade lemonade.
One day, we decided to try making homemade lemon popsicles instead of lemonade, and we dug out our popsicle molds from one of the last moving boxes. After {impatiently} waiting all morning for the mixture to freeze, we finally tried our treats as an afternoon snackā¦ And almost immediately spit them out.
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We somehow forgot the sugar!
Those sour popsicles were such a scarring experience that we agreed to stick with plain olā lemonade instead for the rest of the summerā¦ Which led to most of my middle and high school years, too! Towards the end of high school, when I discovered my love of baking, we stopped juicing quite so many of the lemons so I could turn them into muffins and cupcakes instead, and even in college when I drove home to visit, I would often sneak a few to bring back to my apartment if I was craving any type of lemony baked treat.
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A few weekends ago, I did the same thing and plucked a couple off of my parentsā tree, but I baked this Simple Strawberry Lemon Cake in their kitchen so they could enjoy it too! Itās full of bright sunshiny flavor, along with an extra pop of sweetness from the juicy berries on top, and makes for a lovely spring or summer dessert.
Or breakfastāitās healthy enough for that, too!
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Youāll use white whole wheat flour as the base of this cake. White whole wheat flour is made by finely grinding a special type of white wheat, whereas regular whole wheat flour comes from heartier red wheat. This gives white whole wheat flour a lighter taste and texture, similar to that of all-purpose flour, but it still has the same health benefits are regular whole wheat flour.
Note: Whole wheat pastry flour would be a perfect substitute!
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Youāll incorporate both lemon juice and lemon zest into the cake batter, so youāll need about one extra large or two smallish medium lemons. The zest actually provides the majority of the lemon taste because the flavors are much more concentrated in the peel, so donāt skip it!
Then youāll sweeten the cake with one of my favorite ingredients: vanilla crĆØme stevia. Stevia is a plant-based, no-calorie sweetener thatās clean eating friendly, and itās highly concentrated. A little goes a long way! Youāll only need 1 Ā¼ teaspoons to sweeten this entire cake. This is the kind that I buy, and you can find it at many health-oriented grocery stores, as well as online. (And youāll use it in all of these recipes of mine, too!)
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When preparing the fruit topping, itās very important to slice the strawberries thinly, no more than ā
ā thick. If your strawberry slices are thicker, they wonāt cover the entire cake! And more importantly, the strawberries release juice as they bake, which seeps down into the cake batter. If the strawberry slices are too thick, theyāll release more juice, and the top part of your cake will be somewhat soggy. So thinly slice those strawberries for the best (and prettiest!) cake!
And I highly recommend using a 9ā springform pan for baking this cake! (No, they arenāt just for cheesecakes!) The sides of a springform pan release from the bottom, so you donāt have to invert the cakeāand risk squashing those beautiful berries!āto get it out of the pan. It makes the clean-up a breeze, too!
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Would you like a slice? And when you bake your own, remember to snap a picture and share it with me on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking! Iād love to see your cake!
| Simple Strawberry Lemon Cake | | Print |
- 2 cups (240g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free flour* (measured like this)
- 1 Ā½ tsp baking powder
- Ā½ tsp baking soda
- Ā½ tsp salt
- 1 Ā½ tbsp lemon zest (about 1 very large)
- 1 tbsp (14g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
- 2 large egg whites, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 Ā¼ tsp vanilla crĆØme stevia
- Ā¼ cup (60g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- Ā¼ cup (60mL) freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 very large)
- Ā¾ cup (180mL) nonfat milk
- 1 Ā½ cups (210g) whole fresh strawberries, thinly sliced (no more than ā ā thick)
- Preheat the oven to 350Ā°F, and lightly coat a 9ā-round springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the vanilla crĆØme stevia. Mix in the Greek yogurt, stirring until no large lumps remain. Stir in the lemon juice. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, and stirring just until incorporated. (For best results, add the flour mixture in 4 equal parts.)
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Arrange the sliced strawberries in a circular pattern, beginning with the outer rim before finishing with the interior, and gently press each into the batter. (See the photos in the blog post above.) Bake at 350Ā°F for 39-43 minutes. Place the cake pan onto a wire rack, and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing the sides of the pan. Let the cake cool completely before serving.
Whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, and all-purpose flour may all be substituted in place of the white whole wheat flour. If using regular whole wheat flour, the cake will have a slightly denser texture.
If you prefer to omit the vanilla crĆØme stevia, then substitute Ā½ cup of agave or honey in its place, and reduce the milk to Ā¼ cup. I recommend agave since honeyās taste will slightly mask the lemon flavor.
Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
If you do not have a springform pan, use a 9ā-round cake pan instead, and line the inside with foil before coating with cooking spray. After letting the cake cool for 10 minutes, carefully lift the cake out of the pan by holding onto the foil, and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
{gluten-free, clean eating, low fat, low calorie, low sugar}
View Nutrition Information
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Hi Amy
I was looking for a healthy version of pink lemonade cake when I came across this recipe. It sounds and looks amazing! I am wondering if I can add in some pink lemonade powder ( maybe as a substitute for some of the sugar) for that beautiful pink color? Also can I make this a layered cake?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe, Didi! This recipe doesn’t contain sugar, only stevia, so I’m not quite sure what you wanted to substitute the pink lemonade powder for. If you wanted to make this a layer cake, I’d recommend doubling the recipe. As written, the recipe would yield two incredibly thin layers! š I’d love to hear what you think if you try this recipe!
Hi thank you for the great recipe I didnt have lemons so I used orange instead – drizzled just a simple orange glaze on top – was great!!! keep up the great job!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this cake Nancy! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe modifications too. I always love hearing what tweaks work! š
Hi Amy, can I use almond flour instead and same measurements if yes?
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Nada! I actually don’t recommend using solely almond flour and nothing else for this cake. That’s because almond flour lacks gluten, which is the protein that helps baked goods rise and then hold their shape while cooling. Without it, your cake will turn out much denser in texture. However, if you don’t mind that texture difference, then the flavor should remain the same! š I’d love to hear what you think of this cake if you decide to try making it!
Hi! Can I use truvia sweetener instead on the stevia drops? Just discovered your page and loving it!
You’re so kind — I really appreciate your interest in my recipes! What’s the exact Truvia product that you’d like to substitute? Since many stevia brands and products have different sweetness levels (and can behave differently in recipes!), the answer, as well as any other recipe modifications you might need to make, actually depends on the exact product you wish to substitute. š
Hi thanks for answering!! The truvia says truvia cane sugar blend ( stevia sweetener blended with can sugar) is this even a healthy alternative no sugar?
You’re welcome, Chans! I’m happy to try to help. š Everybody has a different definition of “healthy,” and mine is that healthy ingredients/foods are ones that both taste good and feel good in our bodies. If Truvia’s cane sugar blend tastes great to you and your body tolerates it just fine, then that’s a good sign! It’s not a sugar-free or calorie-free product, seeing as it contains some cane sugar, but it has fewer calories in comparison. (If that’s important to you!)
I actually don’t have much experience with Truvia’s cane sugar blend, so I’m not entirely sure how it’ll turn out and can’t personally vouch for the results of substituting it here. My best guess is that you’d need around Ā¼ cup (maybe a bit more!) to replace the vanilla stevia that I use. I’d also recommend reducing the milk to around Ā½ cup to compensate for the added volume. You may need slightly more milk (ie 1-2 tablespoons) because erythritol both absorbs and dissolves differently compared to cane sugar. The batter should be pretty thick but not dry, if that makes sense!
I’d love to hear what you think of this cake if you try making it!
Hi Amy,
From the magical golden pond.
Can I use frozen berries in ALL your delicious recipes? In this time of the Pandemic
Frozen are easier to get and last longer.
I get all pure fruit no additives.
Thank you,
Jetta
I really appreciate your interest in my recipes, Jetta! I completely understand about frozen berries versus fresh, given what the world is going through right now. It typically depends on the recipe, so I can’t quite give a blanket statement about all of them. However, I do try to include whether fresh or frozen berries will both work in the Notes sections of my recipes! If you see a recipe that calls for one and the Notes section doesn’t specify whether the other will work, then you’re welcome to leave me a question in a comment on that particular recipe. š
For this particular cake, fresh are definitely better to use! Frozen strawberries will release more liquid (they have more as a result of the freezing process), which will affect how the cake bakes and may prevent the batter at the very top from completely cooking all the way through. You could try thawing your frozen strawberries and thoroughly patting them dry after slicing to help minimize that issue, but your cake may still have a somewhat different texture.
Alternatively, frozen strawberries will work in this cake recipe (in place of the blueberries — just thaw and dice them first!) and this cake recipe of mine! Maybe those would be better alternatives for you? š
I’d love to hear what you think of any of these cake recipes if you decide to try making them!
I really do not like the taste of stevia. What is the amount of sugar or honey I would use to replace it?
I’ve actually answered this exact question in the Notes section of the recipe! It’s located directly underneath the Instructions. I know it can be easy to miss! š I can’t wait to hear what you think of this cake, Carole!