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Home » Baking & Desserts » Cakes » Easy Lemon Cake (All-In-One Lemon Sponge)

16 May 2019

Easy Lemon Cake (All-In-One Lemon Sponge)

2.3K shares

Easy Lemon Cake – A delicious, moist all-in-one lemon sponge. Perfect for a teatime treat, cake sale or as a birthday or celebration cake.

PLUS – Make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin with my handy ingredients calculator.

Skip to the recipe

The finished lemon sponge cake. The cake is decorated with swirls is piped lemon buttercream and slices of lemon and is on a white cake stand. There is a title saying "Easy Lemon Cake" at the top of the image, making this image perfect for saving to Pinterest.

One question I get asked again and again is how to adapt my Vanilla Birthday Cake into a lemon sponge. It’s a question I’ve answered a lot in the comments, over email and on my social media, so I thought it was about time I shared the full recipe on here.

This lemon sponge cake is packed full of flavour from the fresh lemon zest and is delicious topped with lemon buttercream.

I have two different lemon buttercream recipes you can choose from – one made with fresh lemon zest and juice, and one made with lemon extract. The one pictured here is made with lemon extract (as it’s smoother for piping), but both work equally well with this cake.

A slice of lemon cake one a plate.

Lemon Cake Q&A

With all my recipes I like to try and anticipate all of the questions you might have. If it’s your first time making this lemon cake, then make sure you have a good read through as there’s lots of extra tips here…

Can this cake be covered in fondant icing?

Yes.

This lemon cake recipe is adapted from the vanilla birthday cake recipe, so it’s perfect for coving with fondant to make a lemon birthday or celebration cake.

To calculate how much fondant you need, head on over to my fondant calculator.

Can this cake be used to make tiers?

Yes.

As with my vanilla cake, it works well for a two-tier cake (it’s quite soft so I wouldn’t recommend making a taller cake with it (although it could be use for the top two tiers of a taller cake).

If you are planning on using this cake to make tiers then make sure you add dowels or straws into the lower layers for added support.

Can this recipe be adapted to make lemon cupcakes?

Yes.

I actually already have this recipe as lemon cupcakes on here. There’s even the option to add a hidden lemon curd centre for an added burst of zestiness.

Lemon cupcakes topped with lemon buttercream.

Can this cake be made in a different size?

Yes.

This cake recipe is very versatile and can be easily adapted to make other sizes and shapes of cake.

Take a look below the main recipe and you’ll find my handy calculator which tells you the ingredients you need to make other sizes of round, square or rectangular cake.

CAN THIS CAKE BE COOKED IN ONE DEEP TIN?

Theoretically yes, but I find I get the best results from using sandwich tins and this is what I would recommend. Cooking this cake in a single deeper tin often has great results, but some people find that it can occasionally lead to the cake not rising properly, or sinking after baking, which doesn’t happen when the mixture is split into sandwich tins.

If you would like to attempt baking the cake in a deep tin then the cooking time will need to increase to 45-50 minutes.

How do you decorate the cake as shown in the pictures?

To decorate the cake as shown in the pictures you’ll need a batch of my lemon buttercream and six half slices of lemon.

  1. Place the bottom layer of cake onto your serving dish.
  2. Add a quarter of your buttercream and spread it evenly with a palette knife or the back of a spoon.
  3. Add the top layer of sponge and again add a quarter of your buttercream and spread it evenly.
  4. To add the swirl effect – put your cake onto a cake turntable (this can be done without a turntable but it’s easier to achieve the effect with one). Place the tip of a small palette knife at the edge of the cake and dig in slightly. Slowly spin the turntable, moving the palette knife inwards as you do to create a swirl.
  5. Fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle (I use a JEM 1B) with the remaining buttercream. Pipe twelve swirls around the edge.
  6. To finish – place a half slice of lemon on every other swirl.

Can this cake be frozen?

Yes, this cake is suitable for freezing.

What is this cake free from/who is it suitable for?

The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.

  • Suitable for Vegetarians
  • Tree Nut-Free
  • Peanut-Free
  • Sesame-Free
  • Soya-Free
  • Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
  • Lupin-Free

Lemon cake topped with lemon buttercream on a white cake stand.

Other recipes you might enjoy

If you’re after some more cake inspiration then take a look at my Cake Index, which includes my classic chocolate, coffee and vanilla cake recipes as well as many more.

  • Chocolate Cake
  • Coffee Cake

If you can’t resist anything lemon (just like me!) then take a look at all of my Lemon Recipes including cakes, biscuits and cheesecakes.

No-bake lemon cheesecake

FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS

Subscribe to the Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients

Lemon cake recipe

Easy Lemon Cake (All-In-One-Lemon-Sponge)

A delicious, moist all-in-one lemon sponge. Perfect for a teatime treat, cake sale or as a birthday or celebration cake.
4.57 from 76 votes
Print Pin Rate Save Go to Collections
Active Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes minutes
Servings: 12 servings
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INGREDIENTS

Metric – US Cups/Ounces
  • 225 g self-raising flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder - you should use a measuring teaspoon and the baking powder should be level
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 225 g soft margarine or butter - if you are using butter, ensure it is soft and at room temperature
  • 225 g caster sugar
  • Zest of 2 lemons
  • 2 tsp milk

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Preheat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
    Line your baking tins (I use 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins) with baking parchment or reusable baking liners.
  • Finely grate the zest of two lemons.
  • Sift the self-raising flour (225g) and baking powder (2 tsp) into a large bowl.
  • Add the remaining ingredients (4 medium eggs, 225g soft margarine or butter, 225g caster sugar, grated lemon zest and 2 tsp milk) and beat (with an electric mixer on a slow speed or by hand) until combined. Make sure that there are no small lumps of butter/margarine in your mixture. If there are, beat for a little longer until the mixture is smooth.
  • Split the mixture equally between the pre-prepared tins. Use the back of a spoon to spread the mixture evenly in the tins.
  • Bake for 30-35 minutes. To check if the cake is cooked insert a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean the cake is ready.
  • Leave the cake to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes. Remove them from the tins and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely – Make sure the cake has cooled completely before decorating.

NOTES

If it’s your first time baking this cake then make sure you read all of the information in the main post as it includes lots of additional tips, as well as the answers to some common questions.
If you have any further questions then do let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to help.
If you would like to make this cake in a different size of round, square or rectangular tin, there is a calculator below the recipe where you can find the ingredients you need.
This cake is decorated with my lemon buttercream which can either be made with fresh lemon zest and juice, or lemon extract.
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NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Calories: 277kcal | Carbohydrates: 32.3g | Protein: 4.1g | Fat: 14.9g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Sodium: 262.8mg | Sugar: 19.2g

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.


Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Keyword: Birthday Cake, Celebration Cake
Author: Charlotte Oates


What are the ingredients for a different size of tin?

The main recipe is for a two-layer 20cm round cake (this serves 12 people). However, this recipe is easily adapted to use other sizes of round, square or rectangular tins. 

To find the ingredients needed to make this cake in a different size, simply add the dimensions of your tin and the number of layers into the boxes below and hit “Calculate”.

I have also added buttercream ingredients to the calculator below to give an indication of the quantities needed. However, the exact quantities will depend on how you decide to decorate your cake. The quantities below are provided for simply filling and topping the cake with buttercream (evenly split between the layers and the top).

Round Cake

Cake Diameter (cm) Number of Layers

Cake Ingredients

  • 0 g self-raising flour
  • 0 tsp baking powder
  • 0 egg(s)
  • 0 g soft margarine or butter
  • 0 g caster sugar
  • Zest of 0 lemons
  • 0 tsp milk

Buttercream Ingredients

  • 0 g butter
  • 0 g icing sugar
  • Zest of 0 lemons and 0 tsp of lemon juice OR 0 tsp of lemon extract

Square or Rectangular Cake

Cake Size (cm) x Number of Layers

Cake Ingredients

  • 0 g self-raising flour
  • 0 tsp baking powder
  • 0 egg(s)
  • 0 g soft margarine or butter
  • 0 g caster sugar
  • Zest of 0 lemons
  • 0 tsp milk

Buttercream Ingredients

  • 0 g butter
  • 0 g icing sugar
  • Zest of 0 lemons and 0 tsp of lemon juice OR 0 tsp of lemon extract

To keep this calculator from becoming too complicated I've only included metric measurements. If you would like US cups measurements for a different size of tin then simply calculate the metric measurements here and then pop the results into my grams to cups calculator and it'll tell you what you need.

The US cups/ounces measurements for the original two-layer 20cm round cake recipe can be found by clicking the big green button just above the ingredients.

WHAT IS THE COOKING TIME FOR A DIFFERENT SIZE OF CAKE AND WHAT OVEN TEMPERATURE SHOULD I USE?

The ingredients are calculated so that the depth of each cake is the same as in the original recipe. This means that the cooking time and temperature don't need to change, so you can use what's listed in the main recipe.

The finished lemon cake decorated with swirls lemon buttercream.

2.3K shares

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Vicki says

    September 11, 2024 at 11:31 am

    5 stars
    I made this for my son’s birthday as he loves lemon cake. I always make my kids birthday cakes, but admittedly, I’m not the best baker, and laughing at what has gone wrong with each cake I serve up has become a bit of a family game (bunch of meanies!). Well, not this time! This recipe produced a near-perfect bake…absolutely delicious, light and and perfectly risen. As well as your lemon butter-cream, I also added some lemon-curd in the middle. Delicious! I’ll be keeping this recipe. Thank you! My family might have to find a new game! 😉

    Reply
  2. Christine Ash says

    July 26, 2024 at 8:42 am

    5 stars
    I have never made such a delicious lemon spounge cake, light and moist, everyone who had a slice all said how good it was. My tin was a bit smaller than recommended so reduced the flour, sugar, and butter by 25 g 3 eggs as they were large. Left the butter so it was really soft but not liquid. Added 3 tablespoons of lemon curd to the filling. Thank you Charlotte it will be my new first choice recipe from now on.

    Reply
  3. Missy says

    July 08, 2024 at 9:07 pm

    5 stars
    Wow made this for a friend’s 50th birthday. The comments I had were amazing. Amazing beautiful receipe

    Reply
  4. J says

    June 24, 2024 at 5:23 am

    5 stars
    Fabulous recipe that made an incredibly light moist cake with a good lemon flavour. I normally use real butter for baking and was pleasantly surprised with how good this cake tasted.

    Reply
  5. Jennifer Archer says

    June 11, 2024 at 7:38 am

    Can’t find instructions for lemon cream for filling

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      June 13, 2024 at 12:37 am

      There is a clickable link to the lemon buttercream in the notes section of the recipe – which you can also find here – Lemon Buttercream

  6. Severine says

    May 28, 2024 at 5:03 pm

    5 stars
    Thank you for this recipe! I have made it twice already as a 2 layer 10′ cake and your calculator tool worked perfectly! Both kids and adults enjoyed this yummy lemon cake

    Reply
  7. Melissa says

    May 16, 2024 at 4:00 pm

    HI, i’m excited to try this recipe. For the cake, only lemon zest required? Not the juice?

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      May 24, 2024 at 2:57 pm

      The lemon zest provides a real punch of flavour without altering the texture of the batter. Lemon juice provides a more subtle flavour and adds liquid which changes the texture. Using just the zest is my preference but you will unlikely have any issues if you wanted to replace some or all of the milk with lemon juice.

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4.57 from 76 votes

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Hi, I'm Charlotte Oates. Welcome to my lively kitchen where I share delicious, simple baking recipes, baking tools and calculators, and lots of tips and tricks.

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