This 4-Ingredient Lemon Cake is a lemon Greek yogurt cake made with plant-based ingredients, no sweetened condensed milk, just natural ingredients. It’s the easiest lemon bread recipe made in one go in the blender.
I love my vegan lemon pound cake recipe, but today I wanted to create a vegan lemon cake that takes only a few minutes to put together, easier than any of my pound cakes, like my Vegan Pound Cake or Orange Pound Cake.
I firstly made this cake in a mixing bowl, not in a blender and baked it in a round 6-inch pan for my son. Then, I rethought the recipe to make it even easier, bringing all the ingredients, including the whole lemon in the blender.
This method makes the bread texture fantastic, bouncy, and chewier than a regular vegan pound cake recipe, but we love it.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Lemon – I am using a fresh, untreated lemon from my garden. Make sure you wash the skin very well if you intend to use the whole lemon in the blender.
- Self-Rising Flour – This is my favorite flavor to create baked goods with less than 5 ingredients because it’s basically all-purpose flour and baking powder. It saves me time as I don’t have to measure the baking powder, but if you can’t find this in the grocery store, here’s the trick.
- Yogurt of Choice. I use vanilla coconut yogurt, which is delicious dairy-free yogurt, higher in fat than other yogurt, but it gives the best texture to the lemon cake. It plays the role of milk and oil at the same time, which are both classic ingredients found in a pound cake recipe. However, you can use any yogurt, cashew, oat, almond, or even lemon-flavored soy yogurt to boost the lemon flavors even more.
- Maple Syrup is my favorite sweetener for this bread because lemon and maple flavors go together well. But any liquid sweetener, including coconut nectar or agave syrup, will work.
How To Make 4-Ingredient Lemon Cake
- Line a 9-inch x 6-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Grease the paper with a cooking oil spray. Set it aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). There are two ways to make the cake, you can use your blender, or simply use a mixing bowl.
- For the blender method, you will blend the whole lemon, so it’s crucial to use an untreated fruit, preferably from your garden. Wash, scrub the skin, and trim the edges. Cut the lemon in four quarters, remove the seeds, and place it in the jug of your blender.
- Add the remaining ingredients and blend on medium speed – I use speed 6-7 of my Vitamix – for about 20 seconds or until the batter is smooth. If using a mixing bowl, add flour, yogurt, maple syrup, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, lemon zest if you like. Stir with a spoon to bring the ingredients together and form a smooth cake batter.
- Transfer the lemon pound cake batter to the prepared pan.
- Bake the cake on the center rack of the oven for 35 to 45 minutes at 350°F (180°C). It’s a bit hard to tell when the cake is cooked, but the top should be nicely golden brown, and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with just a little sticky batter on it, not much. If too wet, keep baking, and if the top of the cake browns too fast, simply foil the pan.
- Let the pound cake cool completely on a cooling rack immediately after baking. Cool the cake at room temperature for about 2 hours, or overnight, before icing and slicing.
Add-Ons
You can have some fun and stir in 1/4 cup of the following in the prepared batter:
- White Chocolate Chips
- Shredded Coconut
- Poppy Seeds or try my vegan lemon poppy seed muffins
Decorating
The lemon icing is totally optional for this cake. I used my vegan royal icing recipe and swap almond milk for lemon juice, then add fresh lemon zest on top of the cake.
Expert Tips To Make This Cake
- The blender method is quick, but your cake crumb will be chewier and raise less.
- The loaf pan combined with the blender method keeps the cake pretty flat. But I also made the cake in a mixing bowl and baked it in a round 6-inch pan, and it gets a decent height, which is perfect for a birthday cake.
- The texture is chewier than a pound cake because the cake has no oil.
Frequently Asked questions
To make 1 cup of self-rising flour, stir 1 cup of all-purpose flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder. If you are gluten intolerant, use all-purpose gluten-free flour to create your own blend.
Store the cake in an airtight box in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can freeze the lemon cake in airtight freezer bags and thaw at room temperature the day before.
No, this cake only works with the flour listed in the recipe card below.
No, a food processor doesn’t have the strength to break the lemon into a smooth cake batter. Follow the mixing bowl method if you don’t have a blender.
Yes, if you bake the cake in a loaf pan, it stay almost flat. But, if you bake the cake in a 6-inch round pan it gets some good height.
More Vegan Cake Recipes
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4-Ingredient Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Self-Rising Flour - (note 1)
- 1 large Lemon - equivalent to 3 tablespoons of lemon juice + zest from the lemon if you don't blend the lemon (note 2)
- ½ cup Maple Syrup - (note 3)
- ¾ cup Dairy-Free Yogurt - (note 4), use lemon flavored yogurt for extra lemon flavors
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 6-inch cake round pan with parchment paper. Spray cooking oil on the bottom and sides. Set aside.
- This lemon cake can be made in a blender or in a mixing bowl. Keep in mind this cake won't rise much in a loaf pan, especially with the blender method, and its texture is chewier than my classic vegan pound cake recipe. You can also bake the cake in a 6-inch round pan following the mixing method for a cake that raises more.
Blender Method
- For the blender method, wash the lemon skin well and ensure you are using untreated lemon. Trim lemon edges and discard. Cut the lemon in quarters, remove the seeds, and place in the blender with all the remaining ingredients.
- Blend on medium speed until the batter is smooth. Don't over-blend, or the cake will be packed and dense. It takes about 20 seconds to blend on speed 6 of a Vitamix.
Mixing Bowl Method
- In a large mixing bowl, add self-rising flour, lemon juice, lemon zest if used, maple syrup, and yogurt.
- Stir with a spoon until a thick cake batter forms.
- Spread evenly into the prepared pan and bake in the center rack of the oven for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out almost clean – there's always a little sticky batter on the stick, but it shouldn't be too much or wet.
- Cool down on a cooling rack for an hour at room temperature before decorating.
- Decorate with a drizzle of royal icing.
Please can I use gluten free self raising flour and gf baking powder?
I haven’t tried yet with gluten-free flour. If you have a blend that you trust and works fine, it should work.
Looks delicious!
Thank you!!
Yum, can’t wait to try this!
Hello, just wondering if plain Greek yogurt would work too? Thanks, Sheri.
Yes it would!
Hi! Love all your content! Thank you for sharing. I am going to try switching to almond flour for this one.
Katherine
Hi, did the almond flour work for this recipe?
How did it turn out? I’m going to try this with almond flour as well.
Did this recipe work with almond flour?
Thank you, let me know how it turned out!