This eggless lemon cake is rich and moist and packed with fresh lemon flavor. It’s also extremely easy to make and topped with a fabulous lemon buttercream frosting.
I absolutely adore lemon desserts (like our lemon meringue pie and lemon cookies) and this eggless lemon cake brings all the lemon flavor you could ever want.
It’s also wonderfully moist, perfectly sweet and super easy and fun to make.
For more delicious eggless cakes, check out our eggless red velvet cake, and our eggless carrot cake.
Ingredients You’ll Need For The Cake:
Ingredient Notes
- Lemon zest – we use two tablespoons of lemon zest in the cake batter, which is about what you’d get from two medium lemons or one large lemon.
- Baking soda – not to be confused with baking powder. It must be baking soda, also known as bicarbonate of soda in some parts of the world.
- Lemon juice – can be freshly squeezed or bottled lemon juice.
- Canola oil – can be switched for vegetable oil.
- Lemon extract – really dials up the lemon flavor. If you can’t get hold of it you can use extra lemon juice instead but the flavor won’t be as strong.
Ingredients You’ll Need For The Frosting:
Ingredient Notes
- Butter – we used a lightly salted butter. Unsalted butter is also totally fine to use but you may want to add a small pinch of salt, around 1/8 teaspoon or to taste.
- Lemon juice – can be freshly squeezed or bottled.
- Lemon extract – as mentioned above, it’s ideal to use lemon extract for a really bright lemon flavor but if you can’t get hold of it, then use extra lemon juice.
How To Make Eggless Lemon Cake
Full instructions and measurements can always be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Sift all purpose flour into your mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Add milk, oil, lemon juice, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest and mix into a batter. Don’t over-mix.
- Divide the batter evenly between two 8-inch cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with circles of parchment paper on the bottoms).
- Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the cake pans for a few minutes and then remove them from the pans and place them onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting. Add softened butter to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed and let it whip for around 3 minutes until your butter is smooth and pale in color.
- Add powdered sugar, lemon extract and lemon juice and beat for around 5-6 minutes until very fluffy and smooth.
- When the cakes are completely cooled, frost with the lemon buttercream frosting.
Recipe Tips
Spoon and level the flour. Using too much flour in this cake will result in a dry cake. So it’s important to measure it correctly. You can use the spoon and level method, which is to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop the flour and don’t pack it into the cup. If you have a food scale then just weigh out the flour on your food scale for perfect accuracy.
Don’t over-mix the batter. Over-mixing can affect the texture and rise of the cake, so mix until it’s just mixed in and then stop mixing.
Bake right away. Once your batter is mixed and divided between the cake pans bake the cakes right away. Don’t let the batter sit for any length of time or it can affect the rise and texture of the cake.
Cake pan sizes. Two 8-inch cake pans OR two 9-inch cake pans work great for this cake. We used 8-inch pans and this is what you see pictured here. However, we also tested it in 9-inch cake pans and it works great, the layers are just a little thinner. The bake time for 8-inch cake pans is 30 minutes and the bake time for 9-inch cake pans is 25 minutes.
Recipe FAQ
This recipe will make 18-24 cupcakes, depending on how high you fill the liners. Bake for 20 minutes.
Keep the cake stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. Alternatively store it in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week. Let it come to room temperature before serving.
The frosted or unfrosted cake is freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.
More Eggless Cake Recipes
- Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes
- Eggless Red Velvet Cake
- Eggless Carrot Cake
- Eggless Vanilla Cake
- Eggless Coffee Cake
- Eggless Cheesecake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below.
Eggless Lemon Cake
Ingredients
Lemon Cake
- 2 and 2/3 cups All Purpose Flour Measured Correctly*
- 1 and 1/2 cups White Granulated Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups Milk
- 1/2 cup Canola Oil or Vegetable Oil
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 tsp Lemon Extract
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Zest
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup Butter Lightly Salted, Softened*
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 2 tsp Lemon Extract
- 4 Tbsp Lemon Juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and spray two 8-inch (*see notes) cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Sift all purpose flour into your mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Add milk, oil, lemon juice, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest and mix into a batter. Don't over-mix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared 8-inch cake pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool in the cake pans for a few minutes and then remove them from the pans and place them onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting. Add softened butter to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed and let it whip for around 3 minutes until your butter is smooth and pale in color.
- Add powdered sugar, lemon extract and lemon juice and beat for around 5-6 minutes until very fluffy and smooth.
- When the cakes are completely cooled, frost with the lemon buttercream frosting.
Notes
- Spoon and level the flour. Using too much flour in this cake will result in a dry cake. So it’s important to measure it correctly. You can use the spoon and level method, which is to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop the flour and don’t pack it into the cup. If you have a food scale then just weigh out the flour on your food scale for perfect accuracy. Click ‘metric’ below the list of ingredients to get the correct weights in grams.
- Lemon zest – this is the amount you’d get from approximately two medium lemons or one large lemon.
- Lemon extract – really dials up the lemon flavor. If you can’t get hold of it you can use extra lemon juice. The flavor won’t be as strong though.
- Butter – we used a lightly salted butter. Unsalted butter is also totally fine to use but you may want to add a small pinch of salt, around 1/8 teaspoon or to taste.
- Don’t over-mix the batter. Over-mixing can affect the texture and rise of the cake, so mix until it’s just mixed in and then stop mixing.
- Bake right away. Once your batter is mixed and divided between the cake pans bake the cakes right away. Don’t let the batter sit for any length of time or it can affect the rise and texture of the cake.
- Cake pan sizes. Two 8-inch cake pans OR two 9-inch cake pans work great for this cake. We used 8-inch pans and this is what you see pictured here. However, we also tested it in 9-inch cake pans and it works great, the layers are just a little thinner. The bake time for 8-inch cake pans is 30 minutes and the bake time for 9-inch cake pans is 25 minutes.
- Cupcakes. This recipe will make 18-24 cupcakes, depending on how high you fill the liners. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Storing and Freezing. Keep the cake stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. Alternatively store it in a covered container in the fridge for up to a week. Let it come to room temperature before serving. The frosted or unfrosted cake is freezer friendly for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.
- Nutritional information is per slice of cake including frosting.
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