Sugar-free lemon drizzle cake

Sugar-free lemon drizzle cake

Sweetened with all-natural xylitol, this sponge has a dense, syrupy texture and keeps well for a few days

Recipe uploaded by

5
 stars 3 ratings 5

Recipe by Caroline Hire

Tested

Difficulty and servings

Easy

CUTS INTO 8-10 slices

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr - 1 hr 10 mins

Freezable

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ Gas 4. Grease and line a 1.2 litre loaf tin (22cm x 13cm width, 7cm depth) with baking parchment. Mix together the flour, baking powder, xylitol and lemon zest in a large bowl.
  2. Mix the eggs, sunflower oil, milk and yoghurt together in a separate bowl or jug and stir them into the flour mixture.
  3. Spoon into a tin and smooth the surface. Transfer to the oven immediately, bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour - 1 hour 10 mins. Check after 50 mins, if the cake is becoming too dark, cover loosely with foil.
  4. Just before the end of cooking time, make the drizzle by heating the lemon juice and xylitol. Stir over a low heat until the xylitol has dissolved. Once the cake is cooked, take it out of the oven and pour over the drizzle.
  5. Cool in the tin before turning it out.
Try

XYLITOL

Xylitol is a natural sweetener made from the bark of birch trees. It looks and tastes like sugar and can be used as a substitute in many recipes. It is low GI and therefore has less impact on blood sugar levels. It is available from large supermarkets and health food shops.

PER SERVING

280 kcalories, protein 5.4g, carbohydrate 44.3g, fat 14 g, saturated fat 2g, fibre 0.7g, sugar 1.2g, salt 0.3 g

Recipe from bbcgoodfood.com, January 2012.

Try 3 issues of Good Food magazine for £3 - subscribe now!

Latest comments and suggestions

  • 31 January 2012

    Serious Eats commented on this recipe

    Can truvia be used instead of xylitol for this recipe? And if so, what would be the substitution amount? Thanks!

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  • 01 February 2012

    venetiacr commented on this recipe

    One does have to be careful using xylitol as it can cause an upset stomach for some people. I have heard that one should use a little at a time to get your body used to it,

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  • 01 February 2012

    Fatface rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Xylitol is the ONLY sugar substitute I have ever tried (and I have tried them all) which truly does not leave an aftertaste. I would appreciate more recipes using it. This cake looks absolutely scrumptious, I shall make it today for my diabetic neighbour :)

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  • 02 February 2012

    Marion commented on this recipe

    I made this yesterday and it was done in an hour and tasted perfect. I love lemon so I used the juice from 2 lemons with the suggested amount of xylitol in the recipe. It looks just like the picture. I've been using xylitol for a few years now. If you're not used to it and consume too much at once, you will get the runs. This is the first really nice recipe with xylitol that I really like, I'll definately be making this again.

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  • 02 February 2012

    Marion rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Forgot to rate it!

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  • 03 February 2012

    Calvin rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Great that this recipe uses Xylitol instead of sugar.. Xylitol is probably the only sugar alternative that looks and tastes exactly like sugar! It's also a natural prebiotic. However if the goal of this recipe was to make it healthy i can't understand using white flour, considering it is just as bad as white sugar in terms of nutritional value and is just basically pure sugar anyway! White flour is certainly not ok for diabetics. This cake would be wonderful with wholegrain spelt flour or even better ground almonds! yum..

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  • 06 March 2012

    Caroline commented on this recipe

    Hi Serious Eats, Truvia is sweeter than sugar, their website says 1/3 teaspoon sweetens like 1 teaspoon of sugar so you won't be able to substitute one-for-one with xylitol or sugar in a recipe. We've yet to experiment using Truvia in baking so we'd advise using the ingredients as they appear in this recipe. If you'd like to try baking with Truvia, they have some recipes on their website. Happy baking :-)

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

  • 15 May 2012

    nikkerspickers commented on this recipe

    Hi Calvin, I absolutely agree with you about the white flour and usually substitute with spelt myself. However, the less gluten we have the better a so I love your idea of substituting with ground almonds. Having not done this before, I'm unsure because the recipe states self-raising flour. Would you add baking powder? If so, how much? Thanks :o)

    Flag as inappropriate

    Please let us know your name and the reason you find the above comment inappropriate.

Leave a comment or suggestion

You must sign in or register to leave a comment.

Sign in / Register

Difficulty and servings

Easy

CUTS INTO 8-10 slices

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 10 mins

Cook time

Cook 1 hr - 1 hr 10 mins

Freezable

Ingredients

  • 225g self-raising flour , sifted
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 225g xylitol (see tip below)
  • 2 lemons , zest only
  • 2 large eggs , at room temperature
  • 125ml sunflower oil
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 200g 0% fat Greek yogurt

DRIZZLE

Print this recipe
Add to your binder

PER SERVING

280 kcalories, protein 5.4g, carbohydrate 44.3g, fat 14 g, saturated fat 2g, fibre 0.7g, sugar 1.2g, salt 0.3 g

Advertisement

Your binder

Here are three other great reasons why to sign up:

  • You get an online binder, where you can store all your favourite recipes and create menus.

Follow Good Food

Advertisement

All about Good Food

Magazine

Good Food Magazine

Subscribe to Good Food magazine - enjoy 100+ triple-tested recipes delivered to your door, every month.

Order today, and get a free book gift

On TV

Foodie TV

See your favourite chefs on Sky Channel 249, Virgin TV 260 and find their recipes at goodfoodchannel.co.uk.

Good Food Apps

Good Food Apps

For Good Food on the go, download our apps to your phone or portable device.
Find out more here