A super simple lemon sour cream cake that's light and fluffy, with bright lemon flavor. Top it with powdered sugar or a lemon glaze.
A simple lemon cake like this is lovely to whip up quickly when expecting guests. The cake batter is simple, flavored with fresh lemon juice and lemon rind. The added sour cream gives a little richness and a tender crumb.
This cake has no butter. It's made with vegetable oil instead. This creates a really moist lemon cake. It also means there's no need for an electric mixer to cream butter. I use a similar recipe in this lemon yogurt loaf cake too.
Ingredients
Find the ingredient amounts for this lemon sour cream cake recipe written in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here is a rundown of what you will need.
- Granulated sugar
- Fresh lemons
- Large eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Full-fat sour cream
- Vegetable oil
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
Lemon icing
The cake can be dusted with powdered sugar or make a tangy lemon glaze. Here's what you will need for that.
- Powdered sugar
- Lemon juice
- Milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, grease, and line an 8-inch round cake pan with parchment paper.
Combine flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a small bowl. Set this aside.
In a large bowl, add the granulated sugar and lemon zest. Use your fingers or a fork to rub the zest into the sugar to release the lemon oils. Do this for around two minutes.
Add the lemon juice, eggs, oil, sour cream and vanilla, and beat well to combine.
Whisk through the dry ingredients until combined, but don't over-mix the batter.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and gently spread it out with a butter knife or offset spatula.
Bake the cake for around 40-45 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, with a few moist crumbs.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it and letting it cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.
The cooled cake can be dusted with icing sugar or drizzled with a lemon glaze to serve.
Glaze
Mix confectioners sugar, fresh lemon juice, and a splash of milk in a medium bowl to make a thick but pourable glaze.
Drizzle it generously over the top of the cooled cake.
Storing
Leftover lemon cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The cake can also be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen for up to 3 months.
Try this Carrot Sheet Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting next!
Variations and substitutions
- The sour cream can be substituted with full-fat natural or greek yogurt
- Swap the lemon for fresh lime juice and zest, or use grapefruit!
- Fold through fresh blueberries for extra color and texture.
- If you want to make this a lemon layer cake, you can bake this in two 8-inch pans instead. The baking time will be less as they will be thinner.
For another delicious cake, try this Dutch Apple Cake!
More lemon recipes
Lemon Sour Cream Cake
A simple lemon sour cream cake that's light and fluffy, with bright lemon flavor.
Ingredients
- 250g (2 cups*) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 200g (1 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ Tablespoon lemon zest
- 60ml (¼ cup) fresh lemon juice
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
- 190g (¾ cup) full-fat sour cream (or natural yogurt)
- 105g (½ cup) olive oil or vegetable oil
Glaze
- 140g (1 ¼ cups) powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- Splash of milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, grease, and line an 8-inch round cake pan with parchment paper.
- Combine flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a small bowl. Set this aside.
- In a large bowl, add the granulated sugar and lemon zest. Use your fingers or a fork to rub the zest into the sugar to release the lemon oils. Do this for around two minutes.
- Add the lemon juice, eggs, oil, sour cream and vanilla, and beat well to combine.
- Whisk through the dry ingredients until combined, but don't over-mix the batter.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and gently spread it out with a butter knife or offset spatula.
- Bake the cake for around 40-45 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, with a few moist crumbs.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing it and letting it cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.
- To serve, the cooled cake can be dusted with icing sugar or drizzled with a lemon glaze.
Glaze
- Mix confectioners sugar, fresh lemon juice, and a splash of milk in a medium bowl to make a thick but pourable glaze.
- Drizzle it generously over the top of the cooled cake.
Notes
*The cup sizes given are for US measuring cups. Note that these are smaller than metric cup sizes. For best results, use a kitchen scale and measure in grams.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 366Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 63mgSodium: 262mgCarbohydrates: 54gFiber: 1gSugar: 34gProtein: 5g
This is an informational estimate only. I am not a certified Dietitian or Nutritionist
AnnZ says
Can I use melted butter instead of oil?
Elien says
You can but the cake won’t be as moist
Janice Cornejo says
Can I use "Light" sour cream if that's all I have? Thank you!
Elien says
Yes you can 🙂
Patience Renzulli says
This cake was delicious and... wait for it... I FORGOT THE SOUR CREAM!!!! Oh I said some bad, bad words when I realized what I'd done. I still had to serve my guests dessert and it was too late to bake it again, so I punted. I scooped some vanilla ice cream in a bowl, and crumbled chunks of the cake over it. Then I took sour cream (I had plenty) mixed with a tiny bit of caster sugar and lemon juice and dolloped that on top with some freshly sliced strawberries. Everyone raved! Next time we have company, I'll make this recipe again. Only I'll put the sour cream IN the cake. I'm going to wander through the rest of your recipes; I am that impressed!
Elien says
I'm so pleased it still worked for you Patience! 😀
Ella says
Can you use cake flour instead?
Elien says
Yes 🙂
Lorrie says
Can this recipe be doubled successfully?
Anne says
I tried this cake recipe and it look really runny until I added the flour mixture still in oven but just wanted to know if that is correct or should it be thick before adding flour?
Elien says
The the lemon juice makes it quite a runny batter 🙂