Lemon Poppy Seed Scones {paleo, grain-free, dairy-free, egg-free}

Lemon Poppy Seed Scones {paleo, grain-free, dairy-free, egg-free}

by | May 6, 2026 | Breakfast Recipes, Snack and Dessert Recipes

Looking for a lovely treat for Mother’s Day brunch or a springtime tea? These lemon poppy seed scones are delightful. 

I made this recipe thinking of my mom, as one of her favorite things is lemon poppy seed cake. I got to make them for my parents on a recent visit, and they loved them. My dad asked, “Does Mom have this recipe?” Well, now she will, as soon as we publish this post 😊  I hope you’ll enjoy these delightful lemon scones, too!

 

Let’s make lemon scones!

Gather your ingredients:

  • 2 Tablespoons chia seeds mixed with 4 Tablespoons warm water
  • 1/4 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 cup almond flour
  • 3/4 cup light buckwheat flour*
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • zest of one lemon
  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
  • 2 Tablespoons maple syrup (or 3 Tablespoons coconut sugar)
  • 6 Tablespoons plant-based butter or coconut oil, melted
  • 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds (optional)
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk or almond milk

Gather your supplies:

  • large mixing bowl
  • 1/4 cup measuring cup
  • 1 Tablespoon
  • 1 teaspoon
  • 1/2 teaspoon
  • 2 microwave safe bowls or mugs
  • mixing spoon
  • table knife
  • paring knife
  • zester
  • juicer (optional)
  • baking sheet
  • parchment paper (optional to line the baking sheet, or use butter)

Step 1

Measure 2 Tablespoons chia seeds into a bowl or mug. Add 4 Tablespoons warm water to the chia seeds. (Water can be warmed in the microwave before adding it to the chia seeds.) Stir and let the chia seeds absorb the water as you work on the next steps.

Step 2

Measure 1/4 cup coconut flour, 1/2 cup almond flour, 3/4  cup light buckwheat flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt into a large mixing bowl.

Step 3

Stir the dry ingredients until well combined.

Step 4

Using a zester, zest the rind of one lemon.

Step 5

Slice the lemon in half and juice the lemon (either using a juicer or simply squeezing the juice into a dish).

Step 6

Add the lemon zest and 1 Tbsp lemon juice to the dry ingredients.

Step 7

Add 2 Tbsp maple syrup (or 3 Tbsp coconut sugar). For sweeter scones, add slightly more sweetener.

Step 8

Measure 6 Tbsp plant-based butter or coconut oil into a microwave safe bowl or dish.

Step 9

Melt the butter or coconut oil (30 seconds in the microwave should be enough time).

Step 10

Add the melted butter or oil to the mixture.

Step 11

Add the chia seed-water mixture to the mixing bowl. 

Step 12

Stir together all ingredients you have added to the mixing bowl. Mixture will be crumbly at this point.

Step 13

Sprinkle 1 Tbsp poppy seeds over the dough.

Step 14

Add 1/4 cup coconut or almond milk.

Step 15

Stir the mixture together until it begins to form a ball. Add a little extra milk if the mixture is too dry or a little extra light buckwheat if the mixture is too moist.

Step 16

Grease a baking sheet or line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 17

Kneed the dough and form it into a ball. Place the ball on the baking sheet.

Step 18

Pat down the ball of dough into a flat circle, about 1 inch thick.

Step 19

Use a table knife to cut the circle of dough into 8 pieces. Slide the pieces apart slightly on the pan.

Step 20

Bake in pre-heated 400 degree F oven for 12 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

Step 21

Let scones cool slightly and serve. Serve with some fresh fruit for a tea time, and perhaps some eggs, sausage, or yogurt for a brunch. Enjoy!

Some extra notes:

1. We get our light buckwheat flour from Bouchard Family Farms. It is certified gluten-free. This is not the same as the dark buckwheat flour that is typically found in the grocery store. Light buckwheat flour has a very mild flavor. There are many recipes on our blog that use light buckwheat flour, so once you order some, you can find plenty of recipe ideas here! Our family typically goes through about 20 bags of light buckwheat from Bouchard Family farms each year – it’s that good. Here are some links to some other recipes on our blog with light buckwheat flour: crepes, muffins/cupcakes, cookies, and pizza crust.

2. The scones are delightful fresh from the oven, but they also freeze well. Once you’ve made the recipe a few times it can be quick enough to make on a weekday morning, but if you double the batch and freeze some, they can be quickly heated in the microwave or oven for an especially quick breakfast.

Enjoy!

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.

DIY Essential Oil Candles… made easy!

DIY Essential Oil Candles… made easy!

by | Nov 17, 2024 | Craft Tutorials

Ready to learn how to make essential oil candles?

We are so excited to share this fun activity with you!

We did not actually set out to write a blog post on candle making. We were really just thinking that making candles would make a sweet Christmas gift for neighbors. Fortunately, we were inspired to start early because we had no idea how much we had to learn!

We decided to write this post to save you time if making candles is something that sounds fun to you. While normally at Sparkles and Sprinkles we are all about your own creativity, this post will give you very specific information on making very specific candles… in the hopes that you won’t have to go through many wasted candles like we did.

This post tells a bit about our candle making journey and provides clickable links for supplies. You can find our printable guide to essential oil candle making on Etsy.

Luckily our “wasted” candles did not go to waste. We made some of them into a sweet little Advent wreath (and we will probably have enough to keep doing this for a few more years to use all of the candles… yes, we messed up that many!). 

We are frequent users of essential oil diffusers*, and we know our favorite essential oil combinations, so we thought it would be as easy as melting wax and mixing in our favorite combinations of essential oils. But this was not the case.

The first candles we made looked beautiful, and smelled beautiful before they were lit, but once lit, they had almost no scent throw and some of them actually smelled bad while burning. Did you know some essential oils can’t be used in candles, according to candlescience.com?

This disappointment with our first candles launched us into A LOT of research.  It turns out that many people have these problems when making essential oil candles, but there are all sorts of conflicting ideas on how to make the candles better. (Not to mention AI generated information, which is really conflicting… don’t worry, this post was written by real people.)
We share with you in this post what worked for us (after many trials!). Keep in mind; however, that essential oil candles are going to have a light fragrance (don’t expect a Yankee Candle or Bath and Body Works smell – these are generally made with synthetic fragrance oils, not essential oils). If you want a really strong smelling candle, fragrance oils are probably the way to go, but we wanted our candles to be all natural, so we stuck with the essential oils. Alternatively, if it is just a lovely scent in your home you are looking for, a diffuser* works much better than a candles.

(*If you are mostly looking for a beautiful and natural scent in your home, we recommend using an essential oil diffuser – it is so easy to add a few drops of oil and change the scent on a whim. But if you are looking for the ambiance of candles or a thoughtful gift to give, read on… We are sharing a plan that should make essential oil candle making fun and easy for the whole family!)

Recipes we love…

Here are our favorite recipes to make delightful candles for all seasons. Please read the entire post for specific directions on how to make the candles (it’s not quite as simple as melting wax and mixing in oils, but don’t worry, our printable eBook on Etsy gives step by step directions to make it a joy!). 

Sunshine and Happiness

A delightful candle for spring and summer, with notes of lemon and lavender and a touch of sweet vanilla.

3 oz. soy/coconut wax beads (measured by weight)

3/4 tsp. lavender essential oil

1/4 tsp. vanilla essential oil

1/2 tsp. lemon essential oil

 

Autumn Joy

A warm and spicy candles that works well for autumn and even into the winter months.

3 oz. soy/coconut wax beads (measured by weight)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon cassia essential oil

1/2 tsp. clove essential oil

1/2 tsp. petitgrain essential oil (a citrus scent)

 

Merry Christmas!

An evergreen forest, sparkling snowfall, and candy cane delights in one sweet candle. Perfect for gift giving!

3 oz. soy/coconut wax beads (measured by weight)

1 tsp. balsam fir essential oil

1/2 tsp. peppermint essential oil

 

Do you want to make all natural essential oil candles too?

We have a plan to make candle making a delight for the whole family!

Get our candle making eBook on Etsy…

Click Here

***Please note that that candle making might be best for older children and adults. The hot wax and the essential oils that may sting the skin and eyes make it a little tricky (risky) for young children. However, younger children can be great helpers with some parts… attaching the wick to the base of the candle containers and/or helping to stick labels on to candle covers when the candles have cooled.***  

What you will need…

Below you will see a detailed explanation of the specific supplies you’ll need. But we have created a simplified shopping list so you can see everything in one place. It is a long list, but once you have your supplies, making candles is really relaxing and fun for the whole family.

Candle making shopping list:

Supply details…

freedom coconut wax

Freedom Organic Coconut Soy Wax Blend

This soy/coconut wax makes beautifully smooth candles, and can be melted in the microwave to make candle making even easier. Coconut/soy wax allows the essential oil scents to shine through. (On our first attempts, we tried beeswax, which itself has a powerful smell, so it does not work well with essential oils.) One 5 lb. bag of wax should make about 25 candles using our recipes (3 oz. of wax per candle).

food scale

Small food scale

To measure the right amount of wax beads, you’ll need a food scale. (We could not find our particular scale for sale at the moment, so we  have provided an alternative link.)

candle thermometer

Thermometer

Essential oils need to be mixed in at 185 degrees F, so you’ll need a thermometer. It does not work to just see that the wax is melted. We did not have a pot clip for our thermometer, but it would be helpful to have one to hold the thermometer in place.

Glass measuring cup

To melt the wax in the microwave, you’ll need a glass measuring cup (probably one that becomes exclusively for candle making, as cleaning it might be difficult). We got a few glass measuring cups so that we had one for each different candle scent combination we made.

Protected surface and potholders

You’ll want to have a protected surface on which to set your candle making supplies – hot wax can splatter even if you are being very careful. A large piece of cardboard works well (then you can throw it away when you are done). You’ll also need potholders to take the hot measuring cup out of the microwave each time.

Long-handled stirring spoons

It’s not so easy to get wax off of spoons, so we found it was best to get spoons with long handles just for our candle making.

4 oz. candle jars or tins

We used both 4 oz. Ball Mason glass jars and 4 oz. candle tins. Both work well, depending on the look you love. If you might be transporting or mailing the candles, a tin would obviously be less breakable, but the glass jars look especially lovely when lit and seem to be quite sturdy as well.

right size wick

Eco wick size 8

Wow! Who knew there were so many different types and sizes of wicks. Some wicks make the essential oil candles smell bad, and some wicks are too small or too big to make the wax melt correctly. We finally found that this wick (Eco wick size 8) is the perfect one to make the wax in a 4 oz. container melt perfectly, without leaving a ring of unburned wax (see photo above), and without getting too hot. The scent throw with this wick is great too!

Wick stickers

To attach the base of the wick to the base of your candle containers, you’ll need wick stickers. With guidance, placing the wick stickers and sticking on the wicks is a fun activity for young children (perhaps ages 4 to 5) who want to join in the candle making fun, but stay away from the hot wax.

Wick holders

To keep the wicks staying centered and tall, you’ll need wick holders. Getting a multipack is a good idea if you want to make more than one candle at a time (you’ll need to keep the wick holder in place for about a day until the wax has completely hardened).

Essential oils

In the recipes above (and in our printable guide) you’ll find a few essential oil combinations we have found to work well. The quantities of oil and the types of oils are quite particular with candles, so we are sharing some recipes that we have found to work, after lots of trial and error. Be sure to use good quality essential oils. We like the Now brand – it tends to be good quality at a moderate price: lemon, lavender, vanilla, cinnamon bark, clove, petitgrain, fir, peppermint

(When calculating how much oil to buy, consider that a 1 oz. bottle of essential oil provides about 6 U.S. teaspoons of essential oil.)

Teaspoon set

We measure our essential oils using 1/4, 1/2 and 1 teaspoon spoons.

Labels and Cardstock

We used Canva to make some sweet labels for our candles. You can find our printable labels on Etsy… or enjoy making your own by hand or with Canva (Canva is so much fun!). While you could get stickers to print your candle labels, we chose to use cardstock, cut with a circle punch and glued on to the cover of the candle container. Gluing on the labels allows them to be repositioned more easily than with stickers. (Our eBook on Etsy does have a printable sticker option set up for Avery circle stickers, but we think cardstock and circle punch works better.)

circle punch

Circle Punch

To cut the perfect circle label, we recommend this 2 1/4″ circle punch. Once we bought this, we have found so many other fun projects to use it for as well.  See our video on how easy (and fun!) it is to use.

Gluestick

Gluing on the labels is another fun way for younger children to participate in the candle making project.

Candle warning labels

Funny fact – I sent one of these candles to my sister, without letting her know that I had made it. It had a “handmade with love” label on the top, but when she saw the warning label on the bottom, she was confused and decided not to light the candle, thinking “Who knows what the real story of this candle is.” Luckily it eventually came up in conversation that I had made the candle, and she happily lit it. Whether or not to use these warning labels is up to you (I did not realize that they might make people think that the candles are not homemade), but one important thing they list is that the wick needs to be kept trimmed short – this actually helps the candle smell better when burned. Our eBook on Etsy also has printable safety labels that look more homemade – so as not to confuse the candle recipient. To punch out our safety labels in the eBook, you’ll need 1″ circle punch too. (The eBook also has gifting info cards that can but tucked in with a gifted candle, rather than placing a safety label on the bottom of the candle. These can be cut out with scissors or a paper cutter.)

How to make the candles – step-by-step…

Once you have your supplies, you’re ready to make some lovely candles! We scoured the Internet to find the best candle making directions, but we did not find any one source that gave us the whole picture of how to successfully make essential oil candles. Our printable eBook brings together essential information that we found from The Candle Journey (and yes, it has been a journey!), Oily Chic (all about essential oils), and Candle Science (we think candle making can count as a homeschool science lesson), along with lots of experimenting here at Sparkles and Sprinkles.
We hope you can skip the long hours of research and jump right into the fun part of candle making by following our recipes and guide. You can get our printable step-by-step guide, along with our printable candle labels on Etsy. Once the guide is printed, candle making becomes a screen-free activity – hooray!

Ready to get our printable step-by-step guide with visuals for each step and printable labels? Click here to find it on Etsy.

Happy candle making!

P.S. We like to pair activities with reading here at Sparkles and Sprinkles. May we suggest some lovely books about Saint Hildegard to accompany your candle making journey? A picture book for children by Demi and some spiritual reflections called Let There Be Light. ENJOY!

Note:  Some links on this page are Amazon Affiliate links.  Sparkles and Sprinkles is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Other links may or may not be affiliate links.  We provide links because we have found these products or services beneficial, and we think you might too.