Lemon Cake- A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
If you've been searching for the BEST recipe for Lemon Cake from a doctored cake mix, we are happy to say that this is it!
This easy lemon cake has a lovely soft texture, is ultra moist, has fantastic lemon flavor, works for cupcakes as well as cake layers, and is sturdy enough to hold up to fondant! What's not to love?
We've frosted this lemon layer cake with a luscious Lemon Buttercream, which is a new recipe for our site also! We've fallen in love with its lemon flavor and it pipes like a dream.
We're so glad to have this lemon buttercream option for slathering and swirling onto all sorts of cakes from lemon cake to homemade vanilla buttermilk cake to classic yellow, coconut and even strawberry! Lemon buttercream pairs perfectly with so many cake flavors.
However, our Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting as well as our homemade Lemon Curd Filling would both be great choices!
Table of Contents
How to Make a Lemon Cake- Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!
First, you'll start with a simple white cake mix (look for recipes that do not contain pudding in the mix as we'll be adding a bit of lemon pudding to this recipe). We used Duncan Hines.
- Combine the sifted cake mix with the flour, sugar, and lemon pudding mix and whisk to blend. *Just 4 tablespoons of pudding is all that we needed to really make a difference in the texture and flavor of this cake.
- We tried baking without the lemon pudding, and while it was good, the stand-out favorite among all of our family taste-testers was the version that contained pudding. The texture is more velvety and the lemony flavor is really nice. We also tried using Lemon Cake Mix instead of White, but didn't like the flavor as much.
- Add the remaining ingredients, including the eggs, water, sour cream, extracts, and lemon zest. The addition of pudding, sour cream, and flour give the cake a from-scratch feel, as it is a bit denser than a straight from the box cake mix cake...but I wouldn't describe this as a dense cake. It is light, has a soft texture, and did I mention an amazing lemon flavor? SO good!
This recipe makes about 7 ½ cups of batter which was just the right amount to divide between three 8 inch layers.
I love cake recipes that have enough batter for three layers so that you can have an additional layer of filling! Mmmmm....bring on the lemon buttercream!
Looking for a Scratch Lemon Cake Recipe?
I should also mention that while we LOVE this doctored Lemon Cake Mix recipe, we have a great Scratch Lemon Cake Recipe , Lemon Buttermilk Cake, and Lemon Velvet Cake as well! If you enjoy baking scratch cake recipes also, this is a great one.
More Lemon Cakes
In addition to more cake mix recipes like our Triple Chocolate Cake and Easy Boston Cream Pie, we have tons of lemon cake recipes as well! Make sure to check out these favorites when dreaming about your next lemony dessert.
Lemon Cake: A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Nobody would guess that this amazing lemon cake recipe all starts with a simple cake mix! So moist and lemony!
Ingredients
- 1 box (15.25 oz.) white cake mix, sifted (Any mix without pudding in the mix)
- 1 cup (114g) all purpose flour (plain in the UK)
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- ½ box (4Tablespoons, (48g) instant lemon pudding (we used Jell-O brand) Do not make pudding, use the dry mix.
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ⅓ cups (322g) water
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream (we use full fat sour cream)
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) lemon extract
- ½ teaspoon (2g) vanilla extract
- zest of one lemon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch round cake pans.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the dry ingredients and whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix for 1 more minute. If you are using a hand mixer, mix for a bit longer.
- Pour into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Check at 25 minutes, if a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, it is done.
- Cool in the pans 5 to 10 minutes then turn out.
- Makes 7 ½ cups batter
- Works well for cupcakes
I have made your Lemon Blueberry Cake, and it is delicious, but I am in a time crunch and need to make one using a doctored cake mix. Could I used this doctored lemon cake mix recipe and add some wild blueberries to it? If so, would I add the same amount that you used in the lemon blueberry cake? Thanks.
Id like to know the answer to this too but with raspberries!!
Hi Maude! It might work--I haven't tried it, but our Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes Recipe from Cake mix is almost identical, but uses a whole box of lemon pudding which makes the batter it a bit more thick.
I had recommended this to Rachel in a different place (in our fb group) and she reported back that it worked well! She used the batter for cake layers rather than cupcakes. You may like to try the same (slicing the raspberries into small pieces) --
https://www.mycakeschool.com/lemon-blueberry-cupcakes-box-mix/
Where’s the icing recipe? Incomplete without that!
Hi Sarah, we used our Lemon Buttercream Frosting for this recipe, but the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting would be great too. They are linked in the post but I'll leave them below-
https://www.mycakeschool.com/lemon-buttercream-frosting/
https://www.mycakeschool.com/cheese-buttercream-recipe/
I made this and didn't care for it much. It was flat and like a pancake.
Hi Michelle- I'm sorry to hear that! By any chance did you use self rising flour instead of All Purpose? That could cause "pancake layers" in recipes that already have leavening. Aside from that, not sure what could have happened other than a missed ingredient or error in measuring. Just out of curiosity, what brand of cake mix did you use?
do you post a frosting for this cake
Hi Merry- sorry, we have it linked in the post (rather than the recipe card)- I'll have to update that to make it easier. We used lemon buttercream:
https://www.mycakeschool.com/lemon-buttercream-frosting/
You could also have a good lemon cream cheese frosting recipe that would work well also!
https://www.mycakeschool.com/cheese-buttercream-recipe/
could you use milk instead of water?
Hi Sherry! I haven't tried it but I would think so!
I have to try this recipe! I am a beginner baker.
Thank you for this website!
I'm so glad, Lorraine. Hope you enjoy it!
Can I make this using 2 9 inch pans?
I did this and it worked fine for me. Cooking time was also the same as listed above.
Hi, I enjoy and rely on The Cake Doctor cook book!
it's the best and I believe a staple in every home kitchen. Would you tell me if I can use a bundt pan for this lemon cake (with lemon pudding) recipe? If so, what size bundt pan, oven temp and time.
Thank you!
Can you use a Lemon flavored cake mix with this recipe? Why does it have to be white cake? Beginner baker😊. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
I wondered the same thing- I have lemon cake mix at home.
Hi Tammy- You could use lemon cake mix if you'd like! Back when we made this recipe, we just didn't have a favorite lemon cake mix- and preferred the flavor of the lemon add-ins. If you have a favorite lemon mix, you can swap that in.
I have a box of Lemon cake mix but wonder if I can use buttermilk in place of milk or water, , also can I separate eggs and whip whites adding it like a chiffon recipe?
Looking for a fluffier texture and richer flavor.
I do have sour cream would that be better than the buttermilk?