This eggless lemon cake is soft, fluffy, super moist and packed with fresh lemon flavor! To get the double dose of lemon flavor, the cake is topped with lemon icing.
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❤️About This Recipe
- This is the perfect warm-weather dessert.
- Ultimate dessert for lemon lovers.
- Flavored with lemon juice and lemon zest. (meaning it has an abundance of lemon flavor, not just hint here and there)
- Topped with simple yet lemony sugar icing.
🧾Ingredient Notes
- Unsalted Butter: I prefer to use unsalted butter in my baking so I can control the salt intake. But if you have salted available, you can use that. It is fine.
The butter has to be softened at room temperature (not chilled, cold, or not too soft like it is melted). Softened butter will cream really well with sugar and it helps in the fluffy texture of the cake.
- Yogurt: I have tried homemade yogurt and store-bought yogurt. Both work fine, you may see some texture difference in the batter (but NOT in the baked cake).
Depending on the thickness of the yogurt, the cake batter can be runny or super thick like a dough. It will be perfectly fine. Do not get tempted to add water to make it batter consistency.
- Lemon juice: It has to be freshly squeezed lemon juice. Bottled juice won’t give the nice flavor.
- Lemon zest: It is the outer bright yellow layer of the lemon rind. Use the Microplane zester to get the zest. Make sure not to grate the inner white part of the rind, just grate the yellow part. The white part is bitter and makes the cake slightly on the bitter taste.
🎥Watch The Recipe Video
👩🍳Step By Step Photo Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C for at least 10 minutes.
- Lightly grease the 9-inch round cake pan and keep it aside. Grease with butter or spray with cooking oil spray.
1) Take dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder) in a bowl.
2) Whisk it until incorporated well. Keep it aside.
3) Take softened butter and sugar in a bowl.
4) Start beating (using a hand mixer) until it is light, fluffy and creamed together. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Alternately, you can do this by hand using a wire whisk or use a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.
5) Then add yogurt, lemon juice and lemon zest.
6) Beat it again until well combined. The batter may look curdled but it is perfectly fine.
7) Now add flour mixture to the wet mixture.
8) Start folding using a spatula and everything is just combined. Do not over-mix or beat.
9) Pour into the prepared cake pan and spread the batter evenly.
10) Bake into the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake will come out clean. And the cake will leave the sides of the cake pan.
Let it cool for 5 minutes in a pan. Then loosen the sides with a butter knife and remove it on the cooling rack. And let it cool completely.
11) To make the lemon icing, take powdered sugar in a bowl and add lemon juice.
12) Whisk it until you get a smooth, runny (yet thick) glaze.
13) Pour icing on the cooled cake.
14) Spread it with a butter knife and let it drip down from the sides. Let the icing dry and set before you cut or cover and store.
💭Expert Tips
The consistency of cake batter may vary depending on how thick/watery your yogurt is. If the yogurt has more water content then the batter may look a little runny. If the yogurt is super thick then the batter will look like thick, light dough (as you see in step pics).
Layered cake: You can double the eggless lemon cake recipe to make a layered cake.
Icing: Instead of simple glaze, you can make lemon buttercream frosting or any other choice of frosting.
Tips About Lemon Icing:
- The cake is cooled completely and then topped with icing. After the icing sets, you’ll get a nice crust of sugar icing (same as shown in the main pic).
- The cake is still warm and topped with icing then the cake will absorb the icing (no crust is formed).
- Icing stays crusty the day it is made. As you store the cake, the next day icing will soften.
🧁Storage Instructions
- You can store this eggless lemon cake overnight at room temperature in a covered container. Only if you are finishing it the next day.
- If you want to store longer, store in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
- As it is a butter-based cake, the butter will solidify after storing in the refrigerator and the cake becomes hard. So make sure to bring it to room temperature before serving to enjoy the soft textured cake.
- Icing will soften the next day as your store the cake.
PS Tried this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section. I always appreciate your feedback! Plus, Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook for all the latest updates.
📋 Recipe Card
Eggless Lemon Cake
Ingredients
For Cake:
- 1 ¾ cups All purpose flour (Maida)
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 2 teaspoons Baking powder
- 1 stick or ½ cup Unsalted Butter softened at room temperature
- ½ cup White Granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups Plain Yogurt
- 3 tablespoons Lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Lemon zest from 1 lemon
For Icing:
- 1 cup Powdered sugar (Confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar)
- 2 tablespoons Lemon juice
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Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C for at least 10 minutes.
- Lightly grease the 9-inch round cake pan and keep it aside. Grease with butter or spray with cooking oil spray.
Making Eggless Lemon Cake:
- Take dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder) in a bowl. Whisk it until incorporated well. Keep it aside.
- Take softened butter and sugar in a bowl. Start beating (using a hand mixer) until it is light, fluffy and creamed together. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula. Alternately, you can do this by hand using a wire whisk or use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment.
- Then add yogurt, lemon juice and lemon zest. Beat it again until well combined. The batter may look curdled but it is perfectly fine.
- Now add flour mixture to the wet mixture. Start folding using a spatula and everything is just combined. Do not over-mix or beat.
- Pour into the prepared cake pan and spread the batter evenly.
- Bake into the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake will come out clean. And the cake will leave the sides of the cake pan. Let it cool for 5 minutes in a pan. Then loosen the sides with a butter knife and remove it on the cooling rack. And let it cool completely.
Making Icing:
- Take powdered sugar in a bowl and add lemon juice. Whisk it until you get a smooth, runny (yet thick) glaze.
- Pour icing on the cooled cake.
- Spread it with a butter knife and let it drip down from the sides. Let the icing dry and set before you cut or cover and store.
Notes
- The consistency of cake batter may vary depending on how thick/watery your yogurt is. If the yogurt has more water content then the batter may look a little runny. If the yogurt is super thick then the batter will look like thick, light dough (as you see in step pics).
- Layered cake: You can double the cake recipe to make a layered eggless lemon cake.
- If icing is added to the cooled cake, then you let it set. You’ll get a nice crust of icing on top. As you store, the next day it will soften.
- If icing is added to the warm cake then the cake will absorb the icing and you’ll miss the crusty icing.
- Storage: If serving the next day, you can keep it overnight at room temperature in a covered container. If wanted to store for more days, then it should be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Bring it to room temperature before serving to enjoy the soft texture
Puja
Can I replace butter with ghee? And if so then how much?
If not then what are other substitutes for butter?
Kanan Patel
No you cannot use ghee.
Personally I have not tried, but one reader has tried with oil. She says she used 1/2 cup of oil instead of butter and it turned out good.
M
Can you please tell me what can I use in place of sugar? Thank you!
Kanan Patel
There is no other option for sugar.
Anna
Very good texture. I have replaced butter with 1/2 cup of oil. However, it needs few more spoons of lemon juice to taste like LEMON cake and at least one spoon less of soda to reduce the soapy taste.