This easy lemon cake is fluffy, moist and full of lemon flavor. It is great for large gatherings. You only need five ingredients and five minutes to prepare this cake. It also doesn’t require any eggs. The cake can also be made ahead of time.
Sheet cakes are a great easy dessert option for all your upcoming gatherings and events. It serves a large group and is so easy to make. This lemon flavored one is one of my favorite ones to make. I love the lovely lemon fragrance and the tangy sour lemon flavor that the lemon adds.
Ingredients
- Lemon
- Self-Rising Flour
- Water
- Sugar
- Butter
Lemon: This cake is flavored with fresh lemon juice. You will need approximately 2 large lemons for this cake.
Self-Rising Flour: Self-rising flour is all purpose flour already mixed with baking powder and salt. I like using self-rising flour because it saves some time. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can just mix together all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. The exact amounts are listed in the recipe card notes.
Water: Water adds moisture and helps make the cake extra fluffy.
Sugar: This cake is sweetened with regular granulated white sugar.
Butter: A little butter is added to create a light and tender crumb.
How to Make Lemon Sheet Cake
The flour and sugar are first mixed together. Then the butter, lemon juice and part of the water is mixed in. Once you have a smooth batter, add in the remaining amount of water. You don’t want to add all the water all at once because this is a very wet batter. Stir in the lemon zest. The batter is then ready to be baked.
Sheet Cake Size
Traditionally sheet cake is made in a large sheet cake pan. However because sheet cake pan is not that common of a pan size to own, you will see a lot of modern sheet cake recipes baked in a 9 x 13 inch pan. This recipe is designed for a 9 x 13 inch pan but you can easily increase the amounts if you wanted to make it in a sheet cake pan or need to serve more people. This cake yields 16-24 slices.
More Easy Cake Recipes
5 Ingredient Lemon Sheet Cake
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups (460 g) self-rising flour
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated white sugar
- 1/2 cup (112 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) lemon juice + 4 tsp lemon zest
- 15 oz (443 ml) water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- Add in the flour and sugar to mixing bowl of stand mixer and mix on low speed until combined. Add in melted butter, 1 cup water and lemon juice. Beat on high speed until no lumps remain. Then add in the remaining water and beat on medium speed until evenly mixed. Add in lemon zest and mix on low speed until evenly incorporated.
- Bake for about 36 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cake surface will remain pale (it will only brown a little around the edges). If adding frosting, wait until cake is fully cooled before frosting.
Notes
- Optional Lemon Whipped Cream frosting: You will need
- 2 cups (473 ml) heavy cream
- 6 tbsp granulated white sugar
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- Add heavy cream, sugar and zest into a mixing bowl. Beat on high speed until soft peaks form.
- This cake is baked in a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. I don't recommend anything smaller because your cake will be too thick. You can use a bigger pan if you don't mind a thinner cake. In addition, you can double the ingredients to bake in a traditional full sheet cake pan.
- This cake makes 16 generous slices but you can cut the slices smaller for 20 or 24 slices.
- Homemade self-rising flour: add 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 5 1/4 tsp baking powder and 7/8 tsp salt to a bowl. Whisk until evenly combined.
- When measuring out the flour (doesn't matter if you are measuring all purpose or already premixed self-rising flour), make sure use the spoon and level method. This means that you should spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Do not directly dip your measuring cup into the flour because this results in too much flour being added.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Do you think I could make this in a loaf tin instead?
You would need multiple loaf pans and the baking time would need to be adjusted. We haven’t tried it so can’t be more specific – let us know if you try it an how it works.
Would the ingredients, while being few, effect the possibility of a substitute for the plain flour (such as almond flour, coconut or chickpea)? Understanding that this is a very broad question, any possible recommendations would be appreciated. Thankyou !!
We’ve only tested it with plain flour. We have a Keto Lemon Cake you might like to try instead.
Thx u for sharing your tasty recipe
Just love lemon n orange cakes
hope you enjoy!