When I say this lemon cake recipe kept me up at night, I really mean it! After hours and hours of recipe testing, I present to you the most incredibly delicious and soft lemon cake recipe! With delicate, moist lemon cake layers, filled with a zesty lemon curd and topped with a super delicious cream cheese frosting, this lemon cake is TO DIE FOR!
What makes this the best lemon cake?
I know it’s bold to claim something as ‘the best’, but here is why I truly feel this cake stands out! I bet you’ll be making it over and over again for dessert once you try it out 🙂
Ingredients
This recipe uses a few key ingredients to ensure the cake layers are soft and moist. Some notable mentions include cornstarch (used in conjuction with all purpose flour to act as a cake flour substitute). Cornstarch doesn’t have any gluten in it, and so substituting some of the all purpose flour with cornstarch results in a wonderfully soft cake (read more about this here)!
Secondly, this recipe uses a combination of butter and oil to provide moisture to the cake. Further to this, milk and yoghurt are used to thin out the cake batter and provide additional moisture. I LOVE using yoghurt in lemon cakes as I find the tartness found in yoghurt helps to amplify the lemon flavor in the cake.
Lastly, this recipe uses HEAPS of lemon zest and lemon juice, to make sure you’re getting that lemon flavor in every bite!
Fillings & Toppings
In addition to the lemon cake layers, this recipe also boasts an incredibly delicious lemon curd filling, and cream cheese frosting.
The lemon curd used in this recipe is literally the best I’ve ever had. It’s an eggless lemon curd too, so you don’t need to worry about the eggs scrambling or the lemon curd tasting eggy! Best of all, the lemon curd is like a literal hit of lemon – but in a good way! It works perfectly in this cake.
My frosting of choice for this cake is my all time favorite cream cheese frosting. It’s not too sweet, has a wonderful tangyness from the cream cheese, and adds another layer of flavor to this cake.
Updated Recipe
This recipe was updated on April the 24th, 2024. Some readers were having problems with the cake layers sinking in, so I decided to update the recipe to make it a little sturdier. Additional structure to the cake layers help to prevent the cake layers sinking in. I promise it still has the same great flavor and texture as the original 😀
The main changes I made was adding in more eggs and replacing some of the oil in the recipe with butter.
I know many of you love the original recipe too, so I have left the original quantities in the notes section of the recipe card.
How to make Lemon Cake
Begin by preheating your oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional (see note 2 if using a convection oven with a fan) and grease two 8 inch round cake pans (I use my homemade cake release) and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Mix together using a whisk and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl add in butter, vegetable oil, sugar and lemon zest. Using a hand or stand mixer on a medium speed, cream together for 2 minutes until light and creamy. If using a stand mixer then you want to do this with the paddle attachment.
Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition.
Add in milk, yoghurt and lemon juice. Mix until well combined – the batter may look curdled, but that’s okay. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
Add your flour mixture to your wet ingredients, and using a spatula, fold together until just combined. Do not overmix.
Distribute the batter evenly into the prepared pans, and bake for 33 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (or with a few moist crumbs).
Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
Lemon Curd and Cream Cheese Frosting
In addition to the lemon cake layers, prepare the eggless lemon curd and cream cheese buttercream. I have both of those recipes on my blog and you’ll just want to make 1 batch of each recipe 🙂
How to decorate this lemon cake
You can decorate this cake however you like, but if you’re new to using a filling then checkout the steps below of how I decorated my cake so that the filling doesn’t seep out of the edges 🙂
So I started off by placing my first cake layer onto my cake stand and spreading out a generous amount of frosting using my offset spatula. I then piped a thin (double) border of frosting around the edges, and I used a 1M piping tip for this.
I then filled the middle with a layer of lemon curd, and then placed my second cake layer on top.
I then went ahead and covered the entire cake in frosting. I used a cake scraper to smooth out the edges, and then used my offset spatula to bring the top lip of frosting into the middle of the cake so that I had some nice smooth edges.
I then used a 1M piping tip to pipe a border on the top of the cake, and then filled the middle with more lemon curd.
And that is it! The cake is ready to serve 🙂
Commonly Asked Questions
How do you store lemon cake?
This cake can be left at room temperature for the day, however overnight it will need to be refrigerated due to the cream cheese in the frosting. The fat and sugar in the frosting will prevent the cream cheese from going off immediately, which is why you can keep it out at room temperature for an extended period of time.
When storing, place it into an airtight container, and into the refrigerator. Allow it to come to room temperature before serving.
Can I use lemon extract or essence in the cake layers?
The cake layers do have a lot of lemon flavor, so I personally feel there is no need to add in more. This is particularly true if you make the lemon curd, which has a very bold lemon flavor 🙂
Soft Lemon Cake
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
Lemon Cake
- 2 cups (240 g) flour - regular, all purpose
- ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- ¼ cup (60 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola oil
- 1½ cups (300 g) white granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp lemon zest - see note 1
- 4 large eggs - room temperature
- ⅓ cup (90 g) milk - room temperature
- ½ cup (115 g) yoghurt - unflavored and unsweetened. Greek yoghurt okay but regular type preferred.
- ¼ cup (58 g) fresh lemon juice
Lemon Curd
- 1 batch of my eggless lemon curd recipe
Cream Cheese Frosting
Instructions
Lemon Cake
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional (see note 2 if using a convection oven with a fan) and grease two 8 inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release) and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- Sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Mix together using a whisk and set aside.
- In a large bowl add in butter, vegetable oil, sugar and lemon zest. Using a hand or stand mixer on a medium speed, cream together for 2 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition.
- Add in milk, yoghurt and lemon juice. Mix until well combined - the batter may look curdled, but that's okay. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
- Add your pre-sifted dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and using a spatula, fold together until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins, and bake for 33 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (or with a few moist crumbs).
- Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
Assembly
- See the end of the blog post above for assembly instructions or watch the recipe video for a visual demonstration 🙂
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
289 Comments
Hello. Could I use melted butter instead of the oil? Or what else can I substitute for the oil, as I don’t have it?
Looking forward to making it soon! Thank you
Hi Mia! 🙂 You could use butter instead (unsalted, room temperature), however just keep in mind the cake will not be as moist as oil is liquid at room temp whereas butter solidifies a bit 🙂
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Hello! Do think the cake would be alright is I made the layers and freeze them? I’m going out of town and the party is on the day I return. I won’t have time to make the cake on that day. I would freeze the layers and assemble the cake when I return.
Hi Carla! 🙂 I haven’t tried freezing the cake layers myself, but it should be fine, just be sure to wrap them well in cling wrap and pop into an airtight container before freezing 🙂
Enjoy!
Could I use sour cream instead of yogurt?
Hi Robin! 🙂 I haven’t tried with sour cream myself so I am not too sure sorry! Usually sour cream makes for a more dense crumb, so just keep that in mind if you decide to try it out 🙂
Great cake! Really soft and moist with a great lemony flavor. Pairs really really well with the linked lemon curd so I definitely recommend both. But it’s also really good on its own 🙂
Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback Miranda! 😀 So so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Hi! Can the yogurt be substituted for buttermilk? If not, should I use whole milk or low-fat plain yogurt?
Hi Alexis! 🙂 I haven’t tried using buttermilk myself as a substitute so I’m not too sure if it’ll work well sorry! It may make the batter a little too thin. The yoghurt also adds additional flavor so I would recommend using it if possible 🙂
Whole milk yoghurt will work well. Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
Should I use 0% milkfat yogurt? Or whole milk yogurt?
Hi Alexis! 🙂 I would recommend using whole milk yogurt. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Great thank you!!
Made the cake and it was delicious. In directions you said to add soda but in list of ingredients soda was not listed. I used 1/2 teaspoon.
Hi Donna 🙂 So glad to hear you loved the recipe! I’m so sorry about the confusion regarding the baking soda – I thought I fixed this a while ago but perhaps due to cache issues some users are still seeing the old page. There is no baking soda in the updated recipe (just to allow more of the lemon flavor to come through), but glad to hear it still worked great for you with the additional baking soda 😀
I just tried this recipe, MK. The cake is so moist and bursting with flavours! All your recipes are fool-proof. Love your art! Thanks a lot!
Hello, can i use this recipe to make lemon poppy???
Hi Joan! Yes that should work fine 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Yay! So so happy to hear you loved the recipe Muskan 😀 really appreciate the feedback 🙂
Hey.
Would this be okay if I made it into a dairy free version?
Oat milk and vegan yogurt for example?
Thank you x
Hi Clara 🙂
Good question! I haven’t tried this recipe as a dairy free version myself so I am really not too sure how it would affect the taste/texture sorry! I am sure there is some way to make it work, but the type of dairy free milk/yoghurt to use may require a bit of trial and error. So sorry I couldn’t be of more help! If you do decide to give it a go would love to hear how it turned out 🙂
Hello. I’m really anxious to have a good lemon cake recipe. I haven’t eaten it yet. I made the lemon curd yesterday and put it in the fridge. It’s pretty solid. Will it be ok if I take it out of the fridge a few hours before I frost the cake or should I add a little hot water and mix. Can’t wait to see how it is. Darlene
Hi Darlene! 🙂 Sorry I am a little late to replying, but I would recommend leaving the lemon curd as is and take it out a couple of hours beforehand as you suggested as it will soften at room temp but it also makes the cake easier to assemble if the lemon curd is on the firmer side :). Just give it a good mix before using it.
Hope that helps and hope you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂