Easy and Delicious Eggless Lemon Cake

If you have an endless supply of lemons, why not try this recipe out for an afternoon tea. It is lemony and so delicious. Being eggless caters for vegetarians as well.

This is a light and fluffy lemon cake. It goes well with an easy lemon glaze. You can also use cream cheese icing or buttercream. Create two of these and layer them for a grand birthday cake! Enjoy!

N. Prasad August 2021

Serves: 8

Cook time: 55 minutes

Prep time: 15 minutes

Total time: 1hr 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp lemon zest

3/4 cup oil

1 1/4 cup castor sugar

1 cup Greek yoghurt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup lemon Juice

1/2 cup milk and 1 tsp vinegar and stand for 5 minutes.

Method

1. Prepare a 20 cm round cake pan: grease, and line with baking paper.

2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C or 160 degrees C fan forced.

3. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and mix in lemon zest

4. In a separate bowl, using a whisk or an electric hand beater, beat oil and sugar together.

5. Beat in yoghurt, vanilla extract, and lemon juice.

6. Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture gradually- in 3 batches, alternating with milk. Fold in gently. Do not over mix.

7. Transfer the batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 35 to 40 min or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

8. Place on a wire rack to cool. Ease the cake out of the pan by gently running a knife around the edges and then turning it out onto a platter.

9. Decorate with lemon glaze or cream cheese icing, finely grated lemon zest and fresh blueberries or as desired.

Tips:

1. Add a drop of yellow food colouring to the batter for the yellow lemon experience. (Optional)

2. To make a 2 layer cake, double the recipe, split into 2 equal batches by weight or measure and bake in 2 identical cake pans.

3. For added flavour, or if you would like to moisten the cake, prepare a simple lemon sugar syrup as below:

Ingredients for simple lemon syrup:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup water

4-5 lemon leaves

1 tbsp lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat to boiling.

Boil until the sugar has dissolved.

Strain out the leaves, cool the syrup and drizzle over the cake before icing or decorating.

Lemon Glaze:

Lemon glaze is probably one of the easiest ways to frost this cake. It tastes pretty good too and the sweet finish complements the tartness of a lemon cake for example. You can also add this to any cake you desire. It goes well with fruit cakes, fruit muffins, cupcakes, buns, and scones.

I used icing sugar mixture as this contains corn flour which tends to give a nicer thicker finish and covers any the cake perfectly. One batch of this recipe will cover a 20cm round cake well. If you desire a flawless finish, you can go ahead and prepare a second batch and pour this over the cake once the first batch of glaze has set.

Ingredients:

1 cup icing sugar mixture

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. In a small microwave proof dish, add all the ingredients and mix well with a fork.

If the mixture is too dry, add a tsp at a time either milk or lemon juice to make a thick runny consistency.

2, Warm in the microwave for 10 sec and continue mixing with a fork until all lumps have dissolved and a thick glaze form.

3. Place the cake (ensure it is cool before glazing) on a wire rack and place a tray underneath to catch any excess glaze that will drip off.

4. Pour the syrup, while it is still runny (do this step as soon as possible after warming in the microwave), starting in the middle of the cake, gently, allowing the glaze to flow outwards evenly and cover the cake.

5. Leave the glaze to set before serving.