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. (When I’m longer on time I might instead plump for this sponge-based Lemon Cake with Fluffy Lemon Frosting …)
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…”
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?
Super delicious and easy to make
Hi Nagi,
If I half the recipe, do you know if it would into a 5 inch round cake pan?
I tried it and it worked!!
Hi Nagi,
Can I use bottle lemon juice instead of fresh lemon juice?
Hi Nagi,
I was just wondering if I could use EVOO in the cake in place of the canola oil? Thank you
Hi Rachel, I prefer baking with neutral flavoured oils so it doesn’t overpower the taste of the cake here – N x
The was lovely and soft,baked it a few minutes longer it didn’t come out as brown as your pic,tho it was cooked and the edges were a little hard.tho that just might be coz of my weird oven
Hi Nagi, would it be possible for me to halve the recipe and back it in a loaf tin? Thanks.
Hi Zee, yes you can halve it – you’ll just need a shorter cook time, I’d check with a skewer at around 30 minutes. N x
Love this recipe! So good and moist.
Hi Nagi,
Love this recipe but I’m having issues with the middle sinking when I take it out of the oven, any suggestions on how to fix this?
Hi Sarah, sorry you’re having issues – is the cake cooked completely? Your oven may run slightly cool, if this is the case, the cake may take an extra 5-10 minutes in the oven. N x
Hi Can you share a gluten free version of this? And is castor sugar just fine powdered regular sugar? Could I blend cane sugar into a powder for this?
Hi Erica, I’ll add this to my recipe request list! Caster sugar is different to powdered/icing sugar. The grain is more coarse, just slightly finer than regular white sugar. N x
I too am interested in the gluten free version – would almond flour work instead?
Made this tonight and gosh it was delicious and super light and fluffy… thank you for a great recipe 👌
Hi Nagi,
What cake pan sizes work for this? I don’t have the pan you have pictured, but I do have a bundt and an 8′ round pan. Any ideas on what I can use for this recipe? I do not want to make a layer cake. Thanks!
Hi Rayana, this recipe uses an 8″ round pan, so your 8″ round pan is exactly what you need! N x
It was easy to make and really good. I overcooked it slightly but it still holds up and is very tasty. I’m definitely bookmarking this recipe!
Hi Nagi,
I am hoping you can offer some advice! The first time I made this cake, it completely fell to pieces when flipping it from the tin to a wire rack. The middle was raw so I put it down to undercooking (even though I cooked it at 160 fan forced for 55 mins), and maybe trying to remove it from the pan too quickly. It tasted delicious so I made it a second time. I cooked for much longer at the same temp, over an hour this time. I let it sit in the pan for 30 mins before flipping, it stayed in mostly one piece but really stuck to the sides and bottom of the pan, so it’s not a very visually appealing looking cake. Is there somewhere I’m going wrong? My measuring cup goes from 150ml to 200ml so I had to guess the amount of oil, could this be the reason my cake is not coming out as fabulous as all my other recipes of yours I have tried?
Hi Hayley, sorry you’re having issues here – sounds like your oven may run slightly cool. I’m not sure why you’re guessing the oil – the ingredients are all listed there in metric as well as cups – so you should be using 165ml of oil. I this what you used? N x
thank you for another wonderful recipe. I substituted 1 cup of flour for almond meal and I was wondering if adding some coconut would ruin the recipe. I just love to play around with recipes but I don’t want to ruin this perfect cake.
Hi there! I’m not sure if you know this, but baby’s breath is highly toxic to humans!
Lucky it’s just for decoration – don’t worry I didn’t eat it! 😉 N x