Just a lovely, simple Lemon Yogurt Cake that makes the 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 an easy cake 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.
Glazed Lemon Yogurt 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 yogurt cake!
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Glazed Lemon Yogurt 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…”
Baking is not my strength but this was easy and turned out perfect! I will be making this often. Yum! Many thanks
I’ve made this recipe numerous times and it’s come out perfectly every time. It keeps really moist for a few days ( it’s so delicious it won’t last that long lol ). Really easy to make
Hello
Can I bake your Lemon cake in a Bundt cake tin for a shorter time perhaps?
Thank you
Replaced the plain flour with Gluten Free Plain Flour and the result was perfecto! A moist, tasty and moreish cake. Everyone loved it.
Is it really 4 tea spoon of baking powder or it’s typo? It seems a lot. I will bake it tomorrow, can you please confirm? Thank you 😊
Lemon cake heaven! The best lemon cake I have ever made. I used avocado oil and jalna lactose free Vanilla yogurt. Thank you Nagi for sharing this gem recipe!
When do I add the sugar?
Made this cake this morning. We’ve just had some for afternoon tea….it’s absolutely delicious, moist and has a lovely lemony flavour. I’ll definitely make this again. Thank you for your amazing recipes.
Naji, many thanks for sharing another brilliant recipe.
Made this for my wife’s tennis club friends – rain cancelled the game. We are eating it at home. The ladies will have to wait until next week; will make another one.
Followed your instructions exactly. Used 160 degrees with fan. Cooked in 60 minutes.
Moist, great flavour a real winner.
Many thanks, Ian.
Baked for 40mins only. Cake turned out perfect. So tasty, moist and the outer crumb perfectly golden with a pleasant firm texture giving way to the perfectly soft and fresh yellow cake inside.
I messed up the glaze, it was too thin, but otherwise SO GOOD
So easy and so delicious. I did mess up the glaze but the cake was perfect. Baked for 40mins. Crust was deliciously golden and crispy and the cake so moist and flavourful.
Amazing. It’s one I bake again and again.
Delicious, big hit with family and friends. I cook for 30-35 minutes and I find it come out lighter and less crispy around edges.
This cake is beautiful, I love lemon so I did use a whole extra large lemons zest and an extra tablespoon of lemon juice. I cooked first 30min on 170 and then 35 on 160. Came out big and fluffy and didn’t sink. (This is the second time I have made this in 2 weeks) I used the glaze for first one and cream cheese icing for this one. Really moist and delicious if you love lemons like me.
Fabulous recipe the cake was a huge success just wondering can I freeze the lemon cake ?
Not sure why this cake has been rated so highly… I would put myself as an Intermediate-Advanced skill in baking and this cake turned out dense, dry and lacking flavour. The “golden brown” crumb that forms on the cake is actually burnt in taste. I couldn’t believe how dense this cake was.
Recommend looking elsewhere if you want a truly light, moist tea cake.
Mine stuck on one side of the pan even though it was greased. It also sunk in the middle a bit. Used fresh everything so not sure what went wrong. This was for work so ummm….bit disappointed….
Hi Rox. I’m about to make this cake on a rainy morning here in Perth. I’m thinking maybe your oven might not be heating evenly. Just a thought.
Great minds think alike I too am in Perth on this rainy day and mine is just cooling off now. Can’t wait to see how to turns out
Best tip I ever learnt from a chef was don’t use fan force for baking cakes in the oven just the elements- it cooks the outside of the cake too quick and you get uneven results!!
Love the taste,however it
sunk in the middle, second time, followed instructions why,,,help please, thanks RM
WOW! This is the most delicious, bright and perfectly moist cake in the world! So easy and such a crowd pleaser! Brought it to work and it was gone by morning tea with raging compliments! This recipe is an heirloom 🙂
I did reduce the sugar a little in the actual cake by 20g (could maybe go 25g less as it was still very sweet, but that being said, I don’t like super sweet treats- if that’s your thing, go for it!) I also added extra lemon to the drizzle and it was the highlight of the cake! The extra lemon made the cake feel so bright!
Regardless of your sugary preference this cake is an absolute delight- well done Nagi! You never fail to impress us!
I made this cake for Good Friday lunch. It was delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks Nagi!
fantastic recipe! i did end up making a lot of adjustments due to adding too much baking soda (my fault!), but the recipe was very forgiving — still turned out delicious, even after all the extra additions & mixing i had to do! as promised, this is a very moist cake that keeps well in the fridge. i ended up making a syrup & sound a poke-cake type thing instead of a frosting/glaze! recipes from here are always so reliably good — thank you 🙂 family & friends really loved this cake