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 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 it’s 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!
Now let’s back to the business of doctoring up a simple cake mix to make the BEST Lemon Cake ever!
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 pudding 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 1/2 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!
I should also mention that while we adore this doctored Lemon Cake Mix recipe, we have a favorite Scratch Lemon Cake Recipe as well! If you enjoy baking scratch recipes also, this is a great one! We hope to eventually have a doctored cake mix version and scratch version of all of our recipes!
Lemon Cake: Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box (15.25 oz.) white cake mix, sifted ( Duncan Hines or any mix without pudding in the mix)
- 1 cup (114g) all purpose flour (plain in the UK)
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1/2 box (4Tablespoons, 48g) instant lemon pudding (we used Jell-O brand)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups (322g) water
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) lemon extract
- 1/2 teaspoon (2g) vanilla extract
- zest of one lemon
Directions
- 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 1/2 cups batter
- Works well for cupcakes
Sounds delish! I love, love, love Lemon :-) Very pretty piping on the side of the cake :-)
nice recipe
Beautiful can’t wait to try! Could you possibly convert to 2 layer using 9×2 inch pans? Thanks!
Hi Ayanna, Below are links to the Wilton and Karens Kitchen cake batter charts
link to fromkarenskitchen.com
link to fromkarenskitchen.com
Both recommend 5 cups per pan. This recipe makes 7 1/2 cups of batter. You could bake in two 9×2 inch pans, your layers just would not be as high. If you use less batter, keep an eye of them so they won’t over bake.
Is this recipe a re-post?
Hi Steph, no we’ve never had a doctored lemon cake recipe until now!
Melissa, do you think this recipe would be thick enough for blueberries so that they do not sink to the bottom after cooking?
Hi Deborah, I can’t be sure because we have not tried it but I don’t think it is thick enough to keep the blueberries from sinking. It is not as thick as the recipe we used for our Lemon Blueberry Cake recipe. If you do decide to give it a try, I would use wild blueberries (fresh or frozen) because they are much smaller.
I usually use a lemon cake mix and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I haven’t tried it with the lemon pudding. I’ll have to try it this way.
Made this today; WOW! My new go-to for lemon cake for sure. The smell, the texture, the flavor; triple threat!
Hi Angela, I’m thrilled you like the recipe! Thanks so much for posting your review!!
Do you not use oil or butter?
Hi Ebony, No, this recipe does not have oil or butter.
Perfect.
Thank you for the recipes. So far everyone I have made turned out great. For this cake…do you recommend freezing to enhance moistness like you mentioned for the buttermilk vanilla cake? I am planning on making it for Thursday. Thank you!
Hi Katherine, Thank you for your nice compliment about our recipes. Yes, freezing the cake layers while still warm will enhance their moistness. The layers will be on their own cake boards. It is important to keep the layers airtight, wrapping the layers individually with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. We almost always freeze. When pressed for time we still freeze for a couple of hours. Hope you will enjoy the cake.
I made these today and they were perfect! Even though I accidentally picked up french vanilla pudding instead of lemon….oops. Just added two more lemons worth of zest and they were the best lemon cupcakes ever. The texture and rise was perfect.
I was wondering…if I left out the lemon zest and extract and still used the french vanilla pudding, would this make for a great vanilla cupcake recipe?
Hi Chelsea, I’m happy you enjoyed the lemon cupcakes. Yes, just leave out the lemon zest and extract for vanilla cupcakes.