4 Ingredient Lemon Cake (No Butter, Oil or Milk)
This unique lemon cake is light, airy and soft. The surface has a delicate, sweet crackly crust and underneath is a soft cake. This cake is just 4 ingredients and doesn’t require any butter, oil, milk or baking powder. It is perfect for serving at special events.
This is the cake I plan on making for a few upcoming holiday brunches and other events. It’s not like your typical cake but it is so unique and delicious. The surface has a delicate sweet shell that cracks when you cut in. Underneath the shell is a light and airy cake, similar to a sponge cake.
Ingredients
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Flour
- Lemon
Eggs: Eggs are used to create the structure for this cake. The eggs are beaten with the sugar until they are more than triple in volume. This method is used for some sponge cakes.
Sugar: This recipe uses regular granulated white sugar. It gives the cake sweetness.
Flour: This cake only needs regular all purpose flour. I don’t recommend using any other kind of flour because it will affect the cake texture.
Lemon: You will need lemon juice and zest from about two lemons.
Cake Texture
This cake has a unique texture. The outside has a brown crust/shell. It’s very delicate and will crack once you cut into the cake. The texture of the crust is like a thin sweet wafer cookie. Underneath the shell is an airy cake that has a texture like a sponge cake.
This cake is not overly sweet and has a nice lemon flavor and smell.
This cake is a lemon variation on my 3 Ingredient Cake.
Tips for Making Lemon Cake
Make sure you whip the eggs long enough. It’s the key to the cake rising properly. I beat mine for 10 minutes on the highest setting on my stand mixer. If you use a hand mixer, you may need to beat longer. The mixture will more than triple in volume, become very thick, and turn a very pale yellow. The mixture looks thick enough that it seems like it might be turning into meringue. As soon as you stop the mixer though, the mixture will immediately deflate and turn more liquidy and bubbly, like this.
You do not need any baking powder, baking soda or any other rising agent.
Be careful not to add too much lemon juice as it will affect your cake’s ability to rise properly.
This cake does need a few hours to cool, so I recommend making it the night before an event. Letting the cake cool will make it easier to cut and also will allow the crackly surface to firm up more.
More Lemon Recipes
- 3 Ingredient Lemon Brownies
- 2 Ingredient No Bake Lemon Pie
- 4 Ingredient Lemon Meltaway Cookies
- Almond Flour Lemon Bars
4 Ingredient Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs, straight from fridge
- 1 cup (195 g) granulated white sugar
- 1/4 cup (59 ml) lemon juice + 1 tbsp (5 g) lemon zest
- 1 cup (128 g) all purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease the interior of a 7.5 inch round springform pan (you can also use a 7 inch or 8 inch) and then line the bottom with parchment paper. Make sure the sides of the cake pan are thoroughly greased, otherwise the cake will stick to it.
- In a large mixing bowl, add eggs and sugar. Beat on highest speed for about 10 minutes or until mixture becomes very thick and turns a very pale yellow, and more than triples in volume. Once you stop beating, the mixture will immediately deflate. This is normal. See notes section for more details.
- Add in the lemon juice and zest. Beat mixture for a few seconds until fully incorporated.
- Use a mesh strainer or flour sifter to sift in 1/3 of the flour into the egg mixture. You need to sift the flour in so that you can incorporate the flour into the egg mixture without deflating too much air from the egg mixture. Use a spatula to fold the flour into the egg mixture. Fold until flour is completely incorporated and you don't see any flour lumps. Repeat with another 1/3 of the flour and then the final 1/3.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 30-35 minutes (mine was done at 33 minutes). If using a 7 inch pan you may need a little longer and if using an 8 inch pan you may need to reduce the time by a few minutes. The surface of the cake should be light brown. A toothpick inserted should come out clean (be careful when inserting the toothpick as you don't want to break the shell too much. It is very delicate and will crack easily).
- Let cake cool completely before removing. It's best to let the cake cool for several hours as it will make it easier to cut and also will let the shell firm up more. If desired, dust cake with powdered sugar before serving. Cut cake slowly and gently with a sharp knife so that the top shell layer doesn't crack too much and the sponge layer doesn't get squished.
Notes
- The cake needs a few hours to cool. I usually make mine the night before I plan on serving it.
- You need to make sure your eggs are whipped to the right consistency. Your mixture should look like it is about to turn into a meringue and more than triple in volume. When you turn off the beaters, the mixture will sink back down quickly and will become more liquidy and bubbly again. See photo in the post for reference.
- Make sure to gently fold the flour in so you don't deflate the egg mixture too much.
- Be careful not to add too much lemon juice. I found that 1/4 cup was just the right amount without affecting the texture of the cake. You can use less but not more than 1/4 cup.
- I used US standard large eggs.
- You can make this in an 8 inch springform pan but your cake will not be as thick and you will need to reduce baking time.
I’m very keen to make this cake. If I separate the whites and yellows and beat the whites first, will my cake be fluffier?
We haven’t tested that with this recipe so we’re not sure how that would work!
Hi. Will it be ok if I use less sugar.
We haven’t tested this recipe with less sugar so we’re not sure how much it would affect the results. If you give it a try let us know how it goes!
I made it for friends and they loved it. Sydney Aus.
That’s so great! We’re glad everyone enjoyed this!
I love it!
We’re so glad you do!
Why cold eggs for this cake? The similar strawberry cake called for room temp. eggs which is the usual recommendation.
Thanks.
While many cake recipes do call for room temperature eggs to ensure they blend more smoothly with other ingredients, cold eggs can sometimes be used to achieve specific textural outcomes or to manage the temperature of the batter!
Hi, I love your recipes.can you tell me how I adjust cook time and ingredients for example your 4 ingredient lemon cake, I often want to make a bigger cake 9 or 10 inch where recipe calls for 7 or 8 inch.or I might want to make 2 cakes at the same time not sure if I would double all ingredients or 1.5?
Sorry, but we haven’t tried making the cake in those size cake pans. The ingredients would need to be increased, but without testing it’s hard to say by how much.
Thanks for this recipe. My cake came out looking great. Sadly, the event I made it for has been postponed….does it freeze well?
Thanks
We haven’t tried freezing it.
Hi,
For high altitude baking do I add more or less flour to the recipe? If so, how much flour.
Thank you.
For high altitude usually more flour is added but it depends on the elevation you are at.
Do you think I could use vanilla extract instead of lemon juice and make it a vanilla cake?
You should try our Easy Vanilla Cake!
Just wondering…I don’t have a springform pan. Can it be made using another kind of pan?
I think you will have difficulty removing the cake from a regular pan. Also in my experience, the cake will not rise as well in a regular pan
Can I substitute Splenda or other artificial sweeteners instead of granulated sugar?
Sorry I have not tried making the cake with Splenda or similar sweeteners
Cooking looks so easy.
Haven’t made it yet but I have the ingredients ready. Just wondering if this will turn out the same if I use a square 8 x 8 pan? Would love to hear what you think.
The cake won’t be as thick with that size pan, so you will need to adjust the baking time.
Can I use a regular cake pan?
It depends on the size, so we don’t have a good recommendation for you. Can you let us know what size pan you are referring to?
Can I use 3 medium eggs for the lemon cake?
You won’t have enough egg mixture if you use 3 medium eggs
I would love to have a book my help me a bit more easier so I can do it a bit more better instead of doing it over the phone because the recipes looks so delicious so easy sometimes it’s nice not to use the phone but trying to do with a book so anyway I could find out or do you do a book you do it so easy so soft silky so tasty makes me so jealous I wish I could have a book
Kirbie has written a couple of books you might like! A book with Mug Cake Recipes* and Dump Cakes from Scratch*. You can also print the recipes on this site – just click the “print” button on the recipe card. Hope that helps!
*These links are affiliate links. Much like referral codes, this means I earn a small commission if you purchase a product I referred.
I am grateful for the information thank you.
I am excited about all the recipes i went through and i am so loving it……Thanks for this site kirbie…..
You’re welcome!
What do you recommend be used to grease the pan?
I use a cooking oil spray
I really want to try some of these cake recipes, especially the lemon ones, but I want to know if I can use the Splenda that measures like sugar instead of the granulated sugar as I am diabetic.
We haven’t tried it, but it should work –
Just wondering if you can use a sugar substitute?
We’ve only tested it with granulated sugar – a granulated sugar substitute should work, but it will depend on which one. Did you have one in mind?
Can I use Monk Fruit sugar?
We haven’t tested it, so can’t say for sure how it will work. Monk fruit isn’t a 1:1 substitute for granulated sugar so it’s hard to say how much you should use.