This easy lemon cake is the cake you make when you need a simple but impressive dessert or snack. Try it!
I love an easy snacking cake.
This one meets all my criteria:
- One-bowl recipe
- Can be eaten with hands
- Becca-approved (child-friendly)
- Moist and keeps well for a few days
- Delicious!
I have been baking this easy lemon cake for years now, and I’ve yet to hear a complaint.
Also, lemons!
I’ve always preferred sweet and sour flavors to spicy.
One of the things I miss the most about the Philippines is the calamansi. Calamansi is a tiny, green, round citrus fruit, which is sourer than a lemon, but a tad sweeter than lime (unless you use the super raw ones). I use calamansi in my dipping sauces (along with soy sauce), to drink (calamansi juice for hot days, hot calamansi juice when I’m sick), and to use in marinades.
Sadly, it is not available here, and most of the bottled calamansi juices being sold in the supermarkets in the Philippines have honey in it. I need plain!
So, here, I use lemons and limes a lot, because they are readily available.
For a couple of years now, I start my day by drinking lemon water as soon as I wake up, to help aid my digestion and strengthen my immune system. Tobi cannot stand the taste of it! But I like it!
Ahhh, I’ve gone a bit off topic from the easy lemon cake.
So back to one of my favorite cakes.
This lemon cake is easy to make, you need only one bowl, and if you use a weighing scale, you will even have less to clean up!
I definitely suggest that you get one. They’re not expensive and super useful! On a side-note, I have started to convert my recipes into grams and milliliters so I don’t have to clean up all those measuring cups!
So, let’s get to the easy lemon cake!
Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C.
Line a 9×4.5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
Zest a lemon. This is my favorite lemon zester. (Here is a similar one.) I’ve had it for a few years now and I like that it gets a lot of zest, more than a microplane zester (which I also have, but I love for using to grate ginger, garlic, and cheese!)
Then squeeze the lemon to get the juice. If you have a large-ish lemon, you should get the juice you need.
Cream butter, sugar and lemon zest over medium speed until light and fluffy.
How to get more lemon flavor.
I suggest, if you have time, infuse the sugar with more lemon flavor by rubbing adding the lemon zest into the sugar first, then rubbing the zest and the sugar in between your fingers. This will release the oils and give a more lemony flavor. Obviously, I forgot to do that this time, but I highly recommend it.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Don’t stress if it looks curdled, it is normal.
Add the vanilla.
Set a strainer over the mixing bowl and sift the flour, baking powder and salt directly into the bowl. Mix at low speed, and pour in the lemon juice as it mixes.
Then pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan.
Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
After you remove the cake from the oven, first let it cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes, then pull out using the parchment paper as handles.
Cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the glaze by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. Drizzle over cooled cake.
Slice and serve, strawberries optional.
Other easy snack recipes you might like:
Pin the Easy Lemon Cake Recipe here for future use:
Calories
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Tweety
Yields 1
An easy snacking cake that is both simple and impressive.
20 minPrep Time
1 hrCook Time
1 hr, 20 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 c (224 g) unsalted butter
- 1 c (200 g) granulated sugar
- Zest of one lemon
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 c (240 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ¼ c (60 ml) lemon juice
- ½ c (63 g) icing sugar
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) lemon juice
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Line a 9x4.5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Cream butterand lemon zest, sugar over medium speed until light and fluffy.
- I suggest, if you have time, infuse the sugar with more lemon flavor by rubbing adding the lemon zest into the sugar first, then rubbing the zest and the sugar in between your fingers. This will release the oils and give a more lemony flavor. Obviously, I forgot to do that this time, but I highly recommend it.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add the vanilla.
- Set a strainer over the mixing bowl and sift the flour, baking powder and salt directly into the bowl. Mix at low speed, pouring in the lemon juice as it mixes.
- Pour into loaf pan.
- Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then pull out using the parchment paper as handles.
- Cool completely on a wire rack.
- Make the glaze by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. Drizzle over cooled cake.
- Slice and serve.
