Just a lovely, simple Glazed Lemon Cake – 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!
This is one of my emergency quick and easy cakes, 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. š
I love how golden brown this cake is straight out of the oven. It almost glows!
In the spirit of this being a simple teacake, I keep the frosting simple too. I just use a Glaze or a quickĀ Cream Cheese Frosting.
For the glaze,Ā 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, I use my shortcut Cream Cheese Frosting which I make simply by mixingĀ 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. š
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 wouldĀ spend decorating a towering cake! š
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 recipe for a couple of months until an adequate amount of time had passed. And finally, I’m sharing it!Ā – Nagi x
- 2/3 cup / 165 ml vegetable or canola oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 Ā½ tbsp grated lemon rind (1 large or 2 medium lemons)
- Ā¼ cup / 65 ml fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup/250g plain yoghurt (Note 1)
- 1 1/4 cups / 275g caster sugar (superfine sugar, granulated ok too)
- 2 cups/300g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 4 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 3/4 cup / 210 g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp plain yogurt
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Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan/convection). Grease a 20 cm / 8ā cake pan with butter.
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Place Wet ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until combined.
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Sprinkle over flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until smooth - few small lumps is ok.
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Pour into pan - it should be fairly thick but pourable (see video). Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
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Remove metal ring and cool on rack then glaze.
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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.
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Place rack on a tray or baking paper.
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Pour glaze over the middle of the cake, gently push towards the edges so it drips down the sides.
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Let it set for 1 hour before transferring to a serving plate.
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See note for how I did the lemon slices in the photos, and the alternative quick Cream Cheese Frosting.
1. Any plain, thick yoghurt will be fine for this. Full fat is better, but low fat will also work. I don't recommend zero fat yoghurt, it tends to be too thin and the purpose of yoghurt is to add wetness to the batter while keeping it thick which is why the cake is so moist.
Sour cream (light or full fat) can also be used.
2. Lemon Slice decoration - cut 2 thin lemon slices. Then cut a slit into the centre. Twist and place on the cake. Twist the other slice in the opposite direction and place on the cake, overlapping with the first slice.
3. Quick Cream Cheese Frosting (pictured in post): Use 200g/6 oz SPREADABLE Cream Cheese (comes in tubs, not blocks) and mix with 2 cups icing sugar / powdered sugar + 2 tbsp lemon juice. Use a wooden spoon to mix well then spread on cake.
4. DIFFERENT MEASURES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES: Tablespoon and cup measures differ slightly between some countries around the world. The main differences are US measures vs rest of the world. For most recipes, the difference is not material enough to affect the recipe. For baking recipes, it can be the difference between success and failure. Luckily, this particular recipe is actually rather forgiving so the difference in measures does not affect it so there is no need to convert.Ā Exception: Japan -Ā please use weights provided, not Japanese cups.
5. STORAGE: Keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days, it stays really moist. The glaze sweats into the cake slightly so you get a similar effect to those coke syrup cakes / poke cakes where you pour sweet syrup over the cake to soak into it and this also helps keep it moist. If it's crazy hot where you are (Dec - Feb in Australia), keep it in the fridge after 24 hours (because mould loves moisture + heat and this cake is very moist š )
Ā WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Watch how to make this lemon cake!
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 toĀ frost it?Ā š³ Maybe I should wait…”
Hi Nagi!
Thank you for such an awesome recipe. Iāve made this twice, with and without the glaze. The cake turned out so moist and delicate. When I made the glaze, it seemed to be pretty runny and did not stop midway despite following the recipe instructions. What should I do to make the glaze like yours?
THIS. IS. AWSOME!!
My new favourite cake recipe.
Great to hear Ivana! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! N x
Hi Nagi,
This afternoon I had a sudden craving for a cake, Lemon came to mind since I like zesty tastes and I am glad I came across your page.. Your cake really made my Friday afternoon š
I made it with some twists of mine, I cut ingredients measures to half for a smaller cake just for me… added a finely grated small piece of ginger and, as per the usual me, used less sugar than intended and used light brown soft sugar
I wish I can send you a bit of the taste, it was so delicious I Love you for it š
Thank you for lifting up my mood with the taste & aroma š
I baked this today, it came out amazing!! I did make a cream cheese frosting and reduced the sugar in the cake and frosting. Hugeee hit for family dinner, Wish i could post photos here.
Love trying your desserts they always come out perfect. Please keep them coming! <3
I was thinking of using Lemon yogurt. Can I use just regular sour cream instead of yogurt?
Hi Caye! It works great with sour cream too, just give it a good mix to loosen it up so it has the consistency like yoghurt š N x
I have made this 3 times this week, it’s delicious!
You sound as obsessed as I am… š
I made this for an office birthday party and everyone was very impressed with the stylish glaze. I never imagined it would stop mid-drop down the side, but it did and looked awesome.
That’s terrific to hear Graceinmotion! So glad you enjoyed this – N x
Hi Nagi,
When I made this (with 2% Fat Greek Yogurt), the batter was super thick (not pourable – ended up using a spoon to scrap it in the pan). End result wasn’t very moist. Do you think it’s because of the low fat Greek yogurt?
Thanks!
Wendy
I just made it and it already smells incredible! IĀ“m currently waiting for it to cool. so that I can smother it in the glaze, but I can already tell that this is going to be another success! Thank you for your amazing recipes Nagi!
Much love from Germany!
Franka
I hope you loved it Franka!! N xx
I love this recipe Nagi. Simplicity at its best and I know this would be delicious. Can’t wait to try this recipe using different shaped pans and decorate it with my son. Hope you continue inspiring everyone.
Thanks Anne! Hope you do get a chance to try it! N xx
Hi Nagi, we made your cake in our Omnia camping oven on the stovetop in our motorhome while parked overnight in a small seaside town in Greece (the GPS coordinates are 39.04407, 21.1124 if you want to copy and paste them into Google Maps so you can see how far your recipes travel). We were inspired by the huge numbers of delicious lemons growing on the many lemon trees virtually growing along the side of the road here, and also by the wonderful Greek yoghurt. We had tried a different lemon cake in the Omnia a month or so ago with mixed results so we were not too sure how it would turn out for us. “But all of Nagi’s recipes are always great” we told ourselves. The result was fanastic – light, fluffy, moist and full of flavour. Thanks for another great cake, and more importantly, one that we can cook on a gas burner. Would you like to see some photos of how it looked in the Omnia?
As I didnāt have the right tin and was short on time I put the mixture in a ring tin and cooked it for 40 minuets, was excellent.
I LOVE hearing that Margaret! Thanks so much for letting me know! N xx
My son made this cake yesterday. It is SO GOOD! This will definitely be made again. Thank you.
LOVE HEARING THAT!! ā¤ļø
Nagi, usually your recipes are out of the ball park delicious. I made this cake last night, and to my dismay, it wasn’t very good, it was DRY! And the color was very very pale, almost white. I was so disappointed so I went over the recipe again and again to make sure that I didn’t miss anything. Then I looked at my yogurt-it was Greek non fat yogurt, and you said not to use non fat yogurt. I didn’t even notice. So everyone-Listen to Nagi! She knows what she’s talking about. I will try the recipe again with proper yogurt!
I’ve used many of your savoury recipes to much success, thank-you. I’m not a great baker and needed to make my son a 13th Birthday cake. I was looking online when your lemon cake dropped into my inbox, his favourite kind of cake…I saw it as a good sign and made it. SUCCESS thank-you so much, I got 9 lots of thumbs up. My daughter did the topping and added a sparse sprinkling of lavender over the top which worked a treat…
Nagi the same over here, the strong wind day and night, dry humid, no rain for the last 45 days, SHOCKING. ON TUES AM SEEING CARDIOLOGIST AM SHIT SCARE HE WILLPUT ME IN HOSPITAL. LAST 02 days breathing NO GOOD, NO SLEEP, NO WALKING, MY BONES ARE ACHEING , MY HEAD IS SPINING, FROM LOUD WIND IT FEELS LIKE AFRICAN DRUMS ARE IN MY HEAD, NO GOOD.YOU SHOULD HAVE FREZZ JAPEN SNOW AND SENDED TO ME. TRY, TRY KEEP COOL AND SURVIVE. POOR DOZER. MY CAT HATED THE HEAT, USE TO GIVE HER COLD PACK. AND TOLD HER I WAS GOING TO PUT HER IN FREEZER. TRUE 2009 we had 45 C, and I opened fridge and Maza would lay down to cool her self. So we can’t help each other. Hope cool change is on a way for both of us.
I made the cake in this morning,it is in the oven.
Thankyou very much!
Hope you love it Elena! N x
Can I use a regular 8 inch round cake pan or is a spring form pan necessary?
Yes you can! š I corrected the cake pan description N x
OMgoodness….I truly was ROFL as I was reading about you being famous!!! You are hysterical…and btw – I can’t wait to make the cake either :~)
I’m not famous I’m not famous!!!! I’m the total opposite of famous – an internet dork! š
A fabulous internet dork! Love your recipes. Shall make this once the humidity leaves – do most of my cooking in late autumn, winter and spring – can’t face my oven in Feral February and Muggy March in Brisbane. Re Dozer – he is soooo gorgeous. Must admit – I know all the dogs names where I live – the people are – ‘oh you are “such and such’s” parent. š