Skip to content
Open menu Close menu

Feed your appetite for cooking with Penguin’s expert authors

18 of the best lemon cakes, bakes and desserts

by Lottie Huckle

published on 27 March 2017, last updated on 22 April 2022

Vibrant, refreshingly tart, and available throughout the year, lemon is a powerhouse ingredient that no home cook or baker would choose to be without. With its bold flavour, lemon is most often the star of the show in cakes and bakes (think the joy of a simple lemon drizzle) but can also be used to balance sweetness or to season other fruits to help them sing. From layer cakes to traybakes, biscuits to loaves, tarts to puddings, here are 18 of our favourite lemon bakes.

Layer cakes

Loaf cakes

Slices, traybakes and bars

Mini cakes

Biscuits

Tarts

Puddings

Vegan

Share

You might also like


View all

Book Collections

Christmas 2025 Gift Guide: The best cookbooks to give this year

With their beautiful designs, eye-catching photography, and luxurious feel, cookbooks can make the perfect thoughtful gift – whether you’re shopping for a kitchen novice, a budding baker, or an ambitious...

Recipe Collections

Mary Berry’s best freezer-friendly recipes

We all know that Mary Berry makes home cooking simple thanks to her brilliant, easy-to-follow cookbooks. Better still, many of her recipes include advice on which dishes can be made...

Recipe Collections

10 recipes you’ll love from Bored of Lunch: Healthy Fakeaways

We all know that Nathan Anthony, also known as Bored of Lunch, is synonymous with easy, delicious, and healthy recipes that can be whipped up in the air fryer or...

newsletter

Subscribe to The Happy Foodie email newsletter

Get our latest recipes, features, book news and ebook deals straight to your inbox every week