This Lemon Tea Cake is light, fluffy, and bursting with zesty citrus flavour. It's the perfect simple bake to enjoy with a cuppa—whether you're entertaining or just treating yourself.
Looking for a classic tea cake? Try our Traditional Cinnamon Tea Cake or for a more decadent lemon treat try our Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes.
Quick look at Lemon Tea Cake
- ⏲️ 50 minutes
- 🛒 Ingredients: 7 simple ingredients.
- 🍽️ Makes: 10-12 serves.
- 🧑🍳 Difficulty: Simple, kid-friendly recipe.
- 🗃️ Make ahead: Best eaten on the day of baking.
My grandma's cinnamon tea cake is one of my absolute favourites to whip up at the smallest cake craving or am short on time so I thought I'd attempt to adapt it to a lemon version for morning tea recently.
I actually only had a little bit of butter left so the recipe was perfect.
I made it up as usual adding some lemon zest to the batter and once the baked cake had sat for a few minutes I poked a whole lot of holes in it and poured over a warm lemon syrup. It was perfect.
It's a great cake to make when you don't have time to let it cool and from ingredients-in-the-cupboard to cake-on-a-plate it's about 45 minutes as long as you don't waste any time.
Why This Lemon Tea Cake Recipe
- Easy - An all-in-one bowl recipe that takes just 15 minutes to prepare.
- Simple Ingredients - as long as you have a lemon you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen.
- Delicious - especially if you serve it right after adding the warm lemon drizzle.
Jump to:
Recipe Ingredients
- Butter - we always use & recommend real butter. The stuff that comes wrapped in paper or foil.
- Lemon - it's best to use fresh lemon but if you need you can use bottled lemon juice.
- Self-raising Flour - or make your own self-raising flour with baking powder.
Finished off with a sprinkling of lemon zest this was another zesty homage to my lemon tree.
It's best served on the day of baking but I enjoyed the last slice two days later after zapping it for 10 seconds in the microwave.
So now I need a little inspiration. What should I make with my next couple of lemons? I spotted a few yellowing on the tree yesterday so they should be ripe for the picking this weekend. Hit me with your best ideas.. or challenges, I love a challenge. Enjoy!
Recipe
Lemon tea cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ½ cup caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup self-raising flour
- ½ cup milk
Syrup
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 1/4/ cup caster sugar
- grated lemon zest for decoration
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 175C (380F) fan-forced and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, zest and sugar together until light and creamy.
- Add the egg and mix it through.
- Beat through half the flour then half the milk and repeat then beat until the batter is smooth.
- Scrape the batter into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Transfer to a wire rack straight from the oven but leave it in the tin.
- Meanwhile make the syrup.
- Place the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture bubbles.
- Poke holes all over the top of the cake and pour the syrup on top.
- Leave in the tin to cool.
Notes
- You can use bottled lemon juice if that's all you have.
- Best served warm right after pouring over the lemon drizzle.
Jenny says
Hi Claire
This sounds like an awesome cake. Just wondering though how it would freeze?
Thanks Jenny
Claire says
Hi Jenny. I could only say give it a go. In my experience most things freeze pretty well. The only thing that could be a problem is the liquid. Maybe you could freeze it without the syrup then defrost, heat the cake and then pour over the syrup?
JJ says
Hi Claire,
Thanks so much for sharing such lovely recipe. The cake turned out to be moist and fluffy nicely. Just one thing about the syrup.. I followed your instruction completely but it turned out to be so sour that the cake became extremely sour after I poured the syrup over it.
JJ says
Hi Claire,
My family and friends tried the cake today and I’ve received very good feedback! They say it’s just a right level of sweet and sour. Thanks again! Look forward to trying your other recipes! :)
Claire says
You're welcome JJ!
Claire says
Eek it can depend on your lemons I suppose but glad it all turned out ok x
KB says
Made this for an afternoon birthday party in 9 inch round pans--only took 15 minutes to cook! Topped with some strawberries. It was fabulous. Thanks for a very easy and popular cake.
Claire says
You're welcome KB I'm glad you liked it!
Fleur says
I have this blistering nostalgia when ever I think of lemon cake, I just love it and it truely reminds me of my childhood, baking lemon cakes and making use of all nanas lemons (she had more than 6 trees in her garden)
I have made clear to my partner that we can't buy a house without a lemon tree.
this recipe is simply beautiful. Thank you.
Claire says
6 lemon trees? Oh wow that would be lovely. My son's favourite thing is looking for lemons every day. He's going to be so sad when the season ends.
Robin says
If you can't find caster sugar what do you use? Or, where can you find it?
Claire says
Robin where abouts are you? It is also called super-fine sugar. You should be able to get it just at the supermarket. Alternatively you can use plain white sugar.