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…”
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
Hiya Nagi,
Reading about how you decorating pretty cake isn’t your thing got me excited (in agreement) cos that’s what I’ve always told my friends & family too! What important is taste! Haha ok that aside, I’m wondering if we could you self raising flour and what would the substitute measurement be?
Thank you!
Sorry Nagi. I just read the comments and that 2 cups of AP is substitute-able with 2 cups of SR. However though, do I still need the baking powder or i can simply omit it?
A winner! Absolutely delicious, even after 3 days and incredibly easy to make.
Absolutely delicious, even after 3 days and incredibly easy to make.
I may have commented on this cake before but thought it worth mentioning that it freezes beautifully and also defrosts quickly. I always buy a bag of lemons and make two at a time. I make it with a lemon drizzle using just granulated sugar and lemon juice which makes it tarter than the glazed version, just a personal preference. My family really love this cake, it’s deliciously moist but also heavy so usually lasts a few days. It’s a fab recipe, thanks Nagi!
hi, i’m in Australia , could I use self raising flour instead of all-purpose flour + baking powder? if so, is it the same quantity?
Hi Sophie, yes 100%! Just use 2 cups of SR flour – N x
Amazing recipe! So easy and the cake is SOO moist and tasty. It’s so nice to find a quick easy recipe that tastes amazing! Thank you!!!
Really easy to make and fatastic result! My mew favourite of the sweet collection. Living at Switzerland, we do.not have Caster sugar, thereforeI choose icing sugar. I also had to convert the size from 20 to 24 cm by factor 1.47 – and prolonged the baking time to 65 Minutes. Perfect and enjoyed by 16 Neighbours at our “October Feast” 🙂
Made this yesterday for a small gathering. I wanted to impress but not spend a lot of time in the kitchen. The cake is so good and the icing is perfect. I had someone comment how the sweetenes of the cake is perfect without the icing and I have to agree. Icing takes it to another level but I can see the cake being used as a base for a birthday cake or something similar. Maybe with lemon and cream filling 😋
Thanks Nagi 😊😊
What a gem you are, I made the cake you suggested, what a great success, THANKS A MILLION
YES!!! That’s great to hear Sandy! N x
This rating is for the glaze only as I haven’t made the cake. The glaze is absolutely perfect!! I’ve struggled to find the perfect lemon glaze, but I should have come to this website first and saved myself a lot of time and effort. Thank you so much Nagi!!
Oh thanks so much VerenaR!!! I’m so glad you love it! N x
Hi Nagi, can I add frozen mixed berries into this recipe? If yes, how much can I put in and do I need to omit or reduce the lemon juice to reduce the tartness of the cake?
Thanks so much.
Hi Susie, I haven’t tried sorry, would love to know if you give it a go! N x
Thanks for the quick reply. Amazing 😊😊😊
If this turns out as great as strawberry recipe then great!
2 questions…
1. No vanilla essence??
2. Can i swap out lemon juice for passion fruit?
PS you’re recipes are SO easy to follow – thank you so much 🙂
Hi Felicity, I use vanilla a lot – this cake is all about the lemon so I chose to leave it out. I don’t think passionfruit would work quite the same way here and the other ingredients would need adjusting (it would be a completely new recipe) N x
I love this recipe. This lemon cake is my go to recipe when I want to impress. It’s so delicious and super easy to make, which I don’t tell the people eating it of course. I’ve made other lemon yogurt cakes but this one is the best!
Best lemon yogurt cake recipe I’ve come across so far ( i’ve tried many!) Thanks Nagi for all the useful tips and wonderful recipes. My first attempt overflowed from an 8” round cake tin, but it came out beautifully from a 9” round tin.
5 stars!!