Just a lovely, simple Lemon Cake recipe – perfect tea time treat. You’ll love the bright lemon flavour, that it’s so beautifully moist and only requires one bowl and a whisk!
Finished with a lemon glaze, this is a simple cake that you can whip up on short notice. Yoghurt keeps the cake moist so it lasts for days and days! It’s the same batter used in this Blueberry Lemon Cake and Strawberry Cake.
Lemon Cake recipe
This Lemon Cake is one of my emergency quick and easy cake recipes, something I can get in the oven super quickly when I’m short on time. There’s no creaming of butter required, it’s a quick dump-and-mix cake.
The “secret ingredient” in this is yoghurt. Yoghurt is a brilliant baking ingredient because it thickens the batter which means less flour required which = more moist cake. 🙂
I love how golden brown this cake is straight out of the oven. It almost glows!
Lemon Glaze
In the spirit of this being a simple teacake, I keep the frosting simple too. I just use a Glaze or a quick Cream Cheese Frosting.
For the glaze, I like to make the glaze a bit thicker than typical glazes because it adds that extra oomph of sweetness and stickiness to the cake, as opposed to cutting it in half and sandwiching it with something.
Added bonus: I love how the drips look and how the glaze isn’t see through.
If a glaze isn’t your thing or you want more frosting, I’ve also included my quick Cream Cheese Frosting. This is different to the usual Cream Cheese Frosting I use for things like Red Velvet and Carrot Cake which requires a stand mixer and a good 7 minutes of fast beating.
In the spirit of the simplicity of this quick Lemon Cake recipe, I use my shortcut Cream Cheese Frosting which I make simply by mixing spreadable Cream Cheese (comes in tubs, not blocks) with lemon juice and icing sugar. No stand mixer required, no need to even wait to soften the cream cheese. Just mix it up with a wooden spoon, dollop and spread. 🙂
You know that pretty cake decorations aren’t my thing. I’d probably spend more time styling a giant plate of slow cooked meat than I would spend decorating a towering cake! 😂
So in my usual form, I’ve kept it nice and simple – just some lemon slices and a few sprigs of baby’s breath from a bunch I happened to have.
This cake may be simple but in all honesty, it’s probably the cake I made most often last year. I actually intended to share it earlier this year, but then I got all excited because blueberries came into season so I published the Blueberry Lemon Cake instead (same cake, but with blueberries).
So I sat on this Lemon Cake recipe for a couple of months until an adequate amount of time had passed. And finally, I’m sharing it! – Nagi x
More quick, emergency cakes
No creaming butter, no stand mixer for any of these!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Watch how to make this lemon cake!
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Glazed Lemon Cake recipe
Ingredients
Wet:
- 2/3 cup / 165 ml vegetable or canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ tbsp grated lemon rind (1 large or 2 medium lemons)
- ¼ cup / 65 ml fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup / 250g plain yoghurt (Note 1)
- 1.25 cups / 275g caster sugar (superfine sugar, granulated ok too)
Dry:
- 2 cups/300g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 4 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
Glaze:
- 1 3/4 cup / 210 g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp plain yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan/convection). Grease a 20 cm / 8” cake pan with butter.
- Place Wet ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
- Sprinkle over flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until smooth - few small lumps is ok.
- Pour into pan - it should be fairly thick but pourable (see video). Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Remove metal ring and cool on rack then glaze.
Glaze:
- Place ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth. Test down the side of the bowl to get the right thickness, using 1 tsp of yoghurt at a time to thin it out if required. Glaze should drip (slowly, because it's thick) but not be see through.
- Place rack on a tray or baking paper.
- Pour glaze over the middle of the cake, gently push towards the edges so it drips down the sides.
- Let it set for 1 hour before transferring to a serving plate.
- See note for how I did the lemon slices in the photos, and the alternative quick Cream Cheese Frosting.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
You can just imagine the thoughts running through that furry head:
“Will I make it to the door??”
“How hard would it be to scoff it down on the run??”
“I wonder if she’s going to frost it? 😳 Maybe I should wait…”
Love this cake! It is light and has the perfect amount of lemon tang to it. My boys barely leave any for me!
Tasty. I made a mistake with baking powder and added too much; that left a weird aftertaste plus cake had dipped in centre. Totally my fault.
I ran out of oil so substituted with melted butter and this was one of the best cakes I have ever had. Also used a loaf tin instead of round cake pan. Took to a picnic with 5 people and the entire thing was eaten!
A little disappointed by this cake. I loved the blueberry lemon version but this was a little bit dry and the glaze did not look like yours but was translucent. My friends enjoyed it but compared to the amazing blueberry cake I will never make it again. My friends gave it 4 starts but my husband and I who had the blueberry cake several times gave it 3 stars.
Hello, is it 412 calories for the entire cake? Or one serving/slice? I prepared according to the 10 servings measurements and used your exact ingredients.
One slice
Hi Nagi,
I’ve had so much success with your amazing recipes! I recently made your vanilla cake as a 6-layer rainbow cake and it was a complete winner!!
This cake also looks amazing, would it work as a two or maybe three layer cake?
Thank you ☺️
Hi there
I have made a similar lemon to this. Also my got to cake however
Does it freeze well? I haven’t tried to freeze it before?
I made this recently and my family loved it! They said it was absolutely delicious! Thank you for all of your amazing recipes.
Whenever I search up a recipe, if I see your website, I’ll always go to yours, as your recipes are always just right for me and my family. This lemon cake recipe was SO yum and just right for our special occasion, celebrating the birthday anniversary of our son who passed away a few years ago… He was a big foodie and LOVED lemons.
Quick question, how do I stop the lemon cake from sinking in the middle? I followed your recipe but used coconut oil instead of the one you listed.
Thanks again!
Hi Karina, sounds like it needs to cook a little more, or it could possibly be the oil causing it to sink unfortunately. N x
Hi, I was wondering if I use half of each ingredients does it work for a one loaf baking tin? Thank you.x
Hi Eva, it would depend on the size sorry! N x
I made this for Valentine’s Day using sour cream and Meyer lemons. I made 1 1/2 the cake and glaze for a 10-12 cup bundt and baked for about 45-50 mins. It is one of the BEST and easiest cakes I’ve ever made! The entire family loved it!
I want to bake this cake in a Bundt pan. Do I have to double all the ingredients to fill it? I’ve read that if one wants to double the batch that not every ingredient is calculated by 2. I’m a little confused about this. Thank you.
This was so easy and delicious. I’ve made it three times now for different occasions and everyone has frothed! Love your website Nagi, you have made me enjoy cooking!
Hi Nagi, I love your recipes! If I want to add frozen blueberries to this easy lemon cake with lemon glaze, how much frozen blueberries do I add?
Do you always need to sift flour in cake baking?
Nagi, I made this today with the cream cheese frosting. OMG!! It came out amazing
I’m so glad you loved it Amy!! N x
This looks delish! Would it work for layering or is it dense? Thank you!
Hi Nagi,
Just made this and it was AMAZING!
I’m planning on making this as part of my daughter’s birthday cake for the adults. I’m just wondering if you’d recommend doing 1.5x batch to get a 2 layered lemon cake and what baking time would you suggest if doing so? Or should I just do a double batch and cut them down?