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…”
So this turned out a bit of a disaster for me, although I think I was probably the tin size. What I thought was an 8 inch tin is actually 7.5 inch, and the batter came up near the edge! I figured at worst I’d get a giant lemon muffin… After an hour it was almost burned on top, and I took it out if the oven. It sank only slightly in the centre. When cooled, I gave it a gentle prod to check the springiness of the cake, but the top just kind of fell in and revealed a CAVE inside this cake! It’s now more like a giant doughnut. The outside bits are still delicious so we will eat those 🙂
Next time I’ll use a bigger tin, or maybe a bundt tin, or scoop some of the batter into muffin cases. Just a warning to anyone whose tins are not exactly 8 inches!
Delicious, light and fluffy! I added a tbsp of poppy seeds and made it in a bundt tin (baked for 40min) and the cake still turned out great.
Another flawless recipe as usual, Nagi, thanks!
I only wish you liked bananas as I’d love a good banana bread recipe 😉
I had so many lemons left over from shrove Tuesday that I knew exactly where to look for inspiration. This was so nice that I made two. One for my husband’s family and one for the lovely district nursing team I’m proud to be a part of. So far, all lovely feedback. P.S, the second cake never made it to my in-laws… *yum yum burp!*
Spent half term with my Nan and made this for my Auntie’s birthday. Yummy 😋
Delicious!! Fail-proof, easy to make for unexpected guests and always gets compliments.
Forgot to add the yoghurt until the last minute. Compared to previous times the texture was slightly dense, so didn’t have the same crumb. Still looked good and very tasty.
This cake is so easy to make and has a beautiful fresh flavour with a moist crumb and tastes amazing. Definately a keeper, thank you Nagi.
This is such a great recipe. Can i make ahead (without glaze) and freeze ? Then use as a celebration cake ?
5 star of course. All your recipes are successful
AMAZING AS ALWAYS, moist as
A+++++++++++
I’ve got heaps of limes from our backyard tree so swapped lime juice and rind for the lemon. On top of the icing, I scattered finely grated lime rind and added a tiny bit of chopped young rosemary. The cake was gorgeous – fine, tender crumb, moist texture, delicate flavour. Delicious with tea or coffee or on its own. Didn’t last long enough to test storage 😉 Thanks again, Nagi. Love your work.
Lovely cake. Could it work with orange rind and juice ? Oranges plentiful now in S Africa
Hi. Also from South Africa. I did not have lemons but had plenty of blood oranges so used that. Turned out fine!
Oops! Five stars, of course 😊
A gorgeous, simple, easy cake to mix and bake. With a glut of limes from the tree in the backyard, I swapped limes for lemons and the fragrance and taste were delicate and delicious. I grated some lime rind onto the icing and added a tiny bit of snipped up rosemary from the garden. Enjoyed with friends and pronounced another keeper. Thanks, again, Nagi!
It’s very easy to put together all the ingredients. The cake came out so fluffy and moist. And most importantly, not too sweet. I topped it with the glaze and covered it with shredded coconut and it goes really lovely together. Thanks for another go-to recipe
A teaspoon of baking powder? I have trouble deciding how much is a teaspoon – what is the measure in grams please?
Hi Vicki, 1 teaspoon is a standard measurement in baking in Australia, UK and USA, and is equal to 5ml volume. Use a measuring spoon labeled with ‘1 tsp’ – they usually come in sets of 4: 1/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp, 1 tsp, 1 tbsp
Love the simplicity and flavours of this amazing cake. I’ve made it several times now and it’s always perfect. The glaze however goes a bit funny after a couple of days if you put the lemon slice on it so I’ve given up on that now.
Hi Nagi, I’ve made this cake a couple of times over the past few years and it’s always a hit! However we have a dairy intolerance in the family and I’d like to ask if it would be possible to substitute the yoghurt with full fat coconut yoghurt instead?
Thanks it was made for my birthday cake and it’s so much like my childhood memories of what cake use to taste like
Yummy love your e we ork
Love, love, love alllll your recipes, can’t wurighy for your cookbook. This is an awesome recipe and a big hit with a friends gathering for a supper meal.
My question is I’d like to make cake ahead of a gathering for thanksgiving and keep it in the fridge. Should the cake be hot or cold when you put the icing.
I also love all Nagi’s recipes. They always work !