Creamy and cheesecake-like with a bright lemon flavor, this cake has no flour, eggs, butter or oil, and it’s done in 33 minutes in an air fryer at 315°F. It depends on very thick plain nonfat Greek yogurt: a runnier brand adds liquid, and with no flour to hold it together, the texture suffers.
Ingredients
The batter has no flour, eggs, butter or oil, just five ingredients:
- 1¾ cups (390 g) plain nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 cup (237 ml) full-fat sweetened condensed milk
- 4 tablespoons (32 g) cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons (44 ml) lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest, from 1 large lemon
For the pan, use a 6-inch round cake pan or springform pan. Grease it with cooking spray and line the bottom and sides with parchment.
- Yield: 8 slices
- Prep: 10 minutes
- Cook: 23 minutes in an air fryer
- Total: 33 minutes
The oven version bakes about 45 minutes, so the air fryer saves you roughly 20 minutes.
Method
- Grease a 6-inch round cake pan or springform pan with oil spray, then line the bottom and sides with parchment. Preheat the oven to 350°F or the air fryer to 315°F.
- Whisk the Greek yogurt and sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl until smooth. Scrape the measuring cups so nothing stays behind.
- Sift in the cornstarch one tablespoon at a time, whisking after each addition until no lumps remain.
- Stir in the zest and juice until evenly mixed, then pour the batter into the pan.
- Bake about 45 minutes in the oven or about 23 minutes in the air fryer. The oven cake stays white except for lightly browned edges and pulls away from the sides. The air fryer top looks done, with patchy caramelizing. Either way, the center can be a little soft but shouldn’t be very jiggly.
- Cool for several hours before eating.
Choose Thick Greek Yogurt
Buy plain nonfat Greek yogurt that is very thick, because this cake has no flour to hold it together. A runnier yogurt adds extra liquid, and that hurts both the stability and the texture of the finished cake.
Fage and Kirkland both work. If the yogurt looks pourable in the tub, pick another brand.
Expect something creamy and cheesecake-like, with no cake crumb at all. That sets it apart from the flour-based lemon yogurt cakes that show up in the same search results, which slice like a tender sponge.
This one is dense and smooth, closer to a cheesecake, and it is the thick yogurt that gives it that body.
Zest Over Juice
Zest carries the lemon flavor.
The oils are in the peel, so the zest gives you a bright, floral lemon taste that juice alone can’t, and juice mostly adds acid and water. Use 3 tablespoons juice plus 1 tablespoon zest.
Add more juice and the batter turns runny, which a flourless cake has little dry material to absorb. The result is a gummy, sunken middle.
Good recipes treat juice as a measured ingredient. An oat flour loaf calls for about 80 ml, the yield of 2 medium lemons, against 300 g of flour and 250 g of yogurt.
Zest the lemons first, then juice them, and stop at the measurement even if the lemon has more to give.
Air Fryer or Oven
The texture comes out the same either way, so the choice is about looks and time.
The air fryer wins for most weeknights: it finishes in about half the time and gives the top a golden, partly caramelized surface. Pick the oven if you want the cake to stay white.
| Air fryer | Oven | |
|---|---|---|
| Temperature | 315°F | 350°F |
| Bake time | about 23 minutes | about 45 minutes |
| Surface | Partly caramelized | Mostly white |
| Texture | Same | Same |
For the browned top, bake at 315°F for about 23 minutes in the air fryer.
Doneness Cues
Skip the toothpick for this cake. It’s done when it pulls away from the sides of the pan and no longer looks very jiggly, even if the center still seems slightly unset.
In a 350°F oven that takes about 45 minutes, and the top stays mostly white with browning only at the edges.
Flour-based lemon yogurt cakes are judged differently: a toothpick comes out clean somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes. Wetter batters, like an oat flour loaf, need at least 1 hour and a toothpick check in the center before they come out.
If the top colors too much before the center is ready, lower the oven to 302°F and keep baking.
Creamy or Firm Slices
Once the cake comes out, cooling at room temperature for several hours leaves the center very creamy and gooey, close to the texture of a Basque cheesecake. The cake sets enough to plate and slice, but the middle stays soft.
If you prefer a firmer, denser slice that cuts cleanly, cool the cake in the refrigerator instead. After a few hours in the fridge, it firms up and slices like American cheesecake, making it easier to serve to guests.
The refrigerated version also brings out a stronger lemon flavor and more noticeable sweetness. You can dust the top with powdered sugar before serving if you want a finished look, though the cake stands fine on its own.
Pick the texture that fits how you plan to eat it: creamy for a casual dessert at home, firm for plated slices at the table.
Gluten-Free Flour Swaps
This cake is flourless, so it needs no swap. The flour-based lemon yogurt cakes are different, and these are their gluten-free routes if you want a true cake crumb:
- Gluten-free all-purpose flour: Use it in place of the regular flour. That version also needs blanched almond flour, which bakes lighter and fluffier than unblanched. Press the lumps through the sifter with a spoon.
- Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour Blend: Use it for the 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour in a recipe with 1 cup whole milk yogurt, 3 eggs and 1/2 cup oil.
- Oat flour: Use 300 g in a loaf pan. It keeps the crumb soft and moist, and the bake runs about an hour.
Lemon Syrup and Glaze
For a cake-style loaf, bake the batter in an 8½ × 4 × 2½-inch pan at 350°F for 50 minutes. While it bakes, heat ⅓ cup sugar and ⅓ cup lemon juice in a small pan over medium-low until the sugar dissolves and the liquid turns clear.
Cool the loaf in the pan for 10 minutes, then pour the syrup on a little at a time, letting each pour soak in before the next.
Leaving the loaf in the pan helps, since the sides hold the syrup against the cake instead of letting it run off. Wait another 10–15 minutes, then lift the loaf onto a rack to cool completely.
Whisk 1 cup powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons lemon juice until smooth, and drizzle it over the cooled loaf.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make a flourless lemon greek yogurt cake in the air fryer instead of the oven?
Yes, and the air fryer is the faster option: bake at 315°F for about 23 minutes versus 45 minutes in a 350°F oven.
The texture comes out the same either way, but the air fryer gives the top a golden, partly caramelized surface while the oven version stays mostly white.
What kind of Greek yogurt works best for this cake?
Use plain nonfat Greek yogurt that is very thick.
Because there is no flour in this cake, a runnier yogurt adds excess liquid that hurts both the structure and the final texture. Fage and Kirkland are 2 brands that work well.
Is this flourless lemon greek yogurt cake already gluten-free?
It is.
With no flour in the recipe at all, no swap is needed. The 4 ingredients doing the structural work are Greek yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, cornstarch, and lemon, none of which contain gluten.
