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…”
Amazing… putting this on high rotation. I served it warm with cream and strawberries.
Lovely light cake, everybody said it tasted delicious.
What a great simple recipe just add the dry to the wet ingredients, love it! I added poppy seeds for texture and decorated with wattle flowers. Perfection.
Sounds amazing Sonia!! N x
Fantastic recipe! This is now my go to lemon cake recipe. Stays incredibly moist for days!
Thank you once again Nagi, fool proof recipes everytime so this cake was delicious and just perfect and it stayed soft and moist for days ! How would i use this recipe base without the lemon as my son wants a vanilla cake and this was an easy method and would love to know (instead of your vanilla cake on the website).
Love the flavour of this cake but unfortunately my cake didn’t come out as looking like yours. It came out a bit paler and had big cracks. The middle even though the skewer came out clean felt too moist when cut. Your advice would be appreciated as I want to try this cake again. Many thanks.
What a rise, although I realised at the end I forgot to add the lemon juice 🙄. Added to the icing instead. All your recipe’s are amazing. The roast Pork belly what a winner.
We picked two shopping bags of lemons from our friends’ trees last weekend. So I wanted to make lemony dessert rather than a chocolate cake for my kids combined birthdays celebration and I found this recipe on line among many others. I have I double the recipe and baked it in the rectangle glass pan and it came out so beautiful. My family loved it so much that I need to make another one. Thanks.
Can you use cake flour instead of all purpose flour? If so, do we still add baking powder?
Hi Mei, I think you’re getting confused between cake and self raising flour. Cake flour doesn’t have any raising agent added, it’s simply lower in protein and therefore produces a softer crumb in cakes. You can use it here, and yes, you’ll still need the baking powder for the lift. N x
This cake was amazing. I made it for an afternoon tea and it was a big hit with everyone. So easy to make. Love this cake 🥰
Super moist and refreshing. Loved it 🥰
Have made this cake twice with the two different icings. I adore it !!!! So easy and delicious. Could I replace the lemon with orange?
Hi Gabriella, I find the lemon more tart, so orange may be a little too sweet here – but love to know if you try it!! N x
Orange version was delicious. I used only 3/4 cup of sugar. I think I will try a lime variation next – this cake is always a winner!
Hi Nagi,
Loved the easy strawberry cake recently – thank you! I’m wondering whether you think this lemon cake would work as a layer cake with a lemon curd layer and raspberry buttercream instead of glaze? I’m planning my daughter’s 2nd birthday cake and I’m not much of a baker!
Hi Georgia, I haven’t tried sorry – I feel like it may be a little too dense and not hold up so well with a curd layer in it – but I’d love to know if you give it a go!! N x
Hi, can I use almond flour instead of regular flour in this cake? Thanks
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 think that 4 tsp of baking powder is a typo! Just wondering if it should read 1/4 tsp. I added 4 and the batter isn’t good. So maybe not your fault but recipe
Maybe you used self raising flour instead of plain flour? 2 teaspoons of baking powder makes 1 cup of plain flour become self raising flour, so 4 teaspoons is not too much. Or did you use bicarb soda which some people think is the same as baking powder (but it’s not!)?- that would make it taste weird!
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?