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lemon cake

Soft Lemon Cake

4.94 from 146 votes
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This lemon cake recipe is literally the best I've had! With delicate, moist lemon cake layers, filled with a zesty lemon curd and topped with a super delicious cream cheese frosting, you'll be going back for seconds (and maybe even thirds!).
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Cooling Time: 1 hour
Total: 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings: 12 people
Author: Cakes by MK

IMPORTANT: 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

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

Note 1. When zesting the lemons, you want to make sure you're using a fine grater, and only grate the top yellow part of the lemon. Don't grate it right to the white part of the lemon as the white part is bitter so we don't want it in our cake :)
Note 2. If using a convection oven with a fan, bake at 160C/320F
Note 3. You can use cake flour in replacement of the all purpose flour and cornstarch in this recipe (270g total required). 
Note 4. This recipe was updated on April 24th, 2024. Updates to the recipe were made to make the cake layers a bit more sturdy to prevent them from sinking in. I promise they still have the same great flavor and texture :D. For those of you who swear by the original recipe, you can find the original quantities here: 
- 2¼ cups (285 g) all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp (22 g) cornflour - also known as cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 tbsp (86 g) unsalted butter
- ¾ cup (141 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola oil
- 1⅔ cups (333 g) white granulated sugar
- 2 lemons zested
- 2 large eggs - room temperature
- 2 tbsp (26 g) milk - room temperature
- ¾ cup (185 g) yoghurt - regular (not Greek), room temperature
- ¼ cup (55 g) fresh lemon juice

Nutrition

Calories: 381kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 96mg | Sodium: 221mg | Potassium: 70mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 483IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 89mg | Iron: 1mg

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.

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Tried this recipe?I love hearing from you! Tag me @cakesbymk.nz on instagram so I can see your amazing creations :)