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Easy Spinach Lemon Cake (Gluten and Dairy Free)

A very easy gluten and dairy free spinach avocado based cake with oat flour and aquafaba fluff made in your food processor or blender. 

Course Dessert

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 half avocado
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1-2 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups gluten-free oat flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. Add avocado, spinach, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice and zest to blender or food processor and blend until pureed and there are no more pieces of spinach visible. It should be a solid creamy green mixture.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the blender or food processors (giving it a quick stir with a spoon to ensure it doesn't blow to the sides when you turn it on) and blend until combined. You don't really have to worry about over-mixing since it's gluten-free.

4. Pour batter into two 8" cake pans either greased or lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes depending on how hot your oven is, insert a knife into the center and it should come out clean when ready.

6. Let the cakes cool on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes. I used this time to clean up and prepare my frosting.

7. For the frosting, I used 1/3 cup earth balance vegan butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla powder, a pinch of lemon zest and 1 cup of aquafaba fluff (you can find the link to the recipe in this blog post) 

Spring is here! Can you feel it? Can you see it? Everything is green, the trees are sporting pretty little buds, the tulips are blooming, and the air has that spring-y smell in it that makes me sneeze!

Unless of course you live in a city in which case you are probably at that brief seasonal sweet spot in between sidewalks covered in questionably dirty snow and the air smelling faintly of hot garbage.

(City dwellers don’t be insulted, I love city-living and have many fond memories of my time in various ones, however, I am currently enjoying rural heaven with the salty sea air and the lush gardens I get to romp around in daily)

Whether you live in a concrete jungle or a real one, this recipe is a great way to usher in the spring vibes in the air thanks to its vibrant GREEN hue!

In the wake of St. Patrick’s day the internet was awash with green recipes to celebrate the shamrock-clad leprechaun who freed Ireland of snakes (that’s what the holiday is right?) jk I’m super Irish and know what St. Paddy’s day is all about.

One thing that struck me about all these recipes was that they were filled with green food coloring. I don’t know about you but I am no scientist and I certainly don’t understand what it is in food dyes nor do I have any inclination to ingest them. I have this imagery of eating something with food coloring and it turning all of my internal organs green which seems very unnatural and I can’t imagine my body would enjoy that.

I set out to find a way to make a naturally green cake and turned to my favorite green vegetable – spinach! Before you say ‘yuck!’, drop your computer, and run away from this webpage, I swear to you that you can’t taste it. Try to approach putting spinach in this cake the same way you might approach adding some spinach to your fave fruit smoothie. I made this for my brother’s birthday and didn’t tell him what the secret ingredient was until he ate a slice and he said it was tasty! The tangy lemon outshines anything else going on flavor-wise.

Popeye popularized the amount of iron in spinach but its health benefits don’t stop there, it is high in Vitamin A, K, and even calcium! You can put a decent amount in this cake without tasting it at all so throw in as much as your palette desires! One and a half to two cups is my recommendation to keep it on the sweeter side.

I am a huge spinach fan if you can’t tell. Maybe it is no surprise that I am a St Patrick’s day baby what with my love for all things green…

This cake doesn’t use just one green ingredient, it also includes the creamy goodness of avocado in place of any butter/oil. That was a nice little treat for you since I didn’t include avocado in the title of this recipe! Wasn’t that a good surprise?

Spinach, avocado, a few eggs, and some gluten-free oat flour – this cake is BASICALLY a salad, so go ahead and make it, then devour it.

Did I mention how easy this cake is to make? I didn’t. I can’t believe I didn’t say that right off the bat. This cake comes together in seconds as it’s all thrown into your blender or food processor then poured right into the pan! That’s right, minimal cleanup, healthy cake, seriously what is your excuse for not trying this right now.

For this cake I made a vegan vanilla frosting with earth balance, powdered sugar, and some aquafaba fluff I had leftover. If avoiding dairy isn’t your thang you can use your favorite buttercream frosting but this simple lemon vanilla one I made was pretty delish.

Now it’s time to go outside, take in a deep breath of that delicious spring air and run/bike/walk/drive to the store to get some spinach so you can make this cake tonight. I’m sorry to be so bossy but really you’re missing out if you don’t try this easy spinach lemon cake!

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