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!
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 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 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 Lemon Scratch Recipe Also?
I should also mention that while we LOVE 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: 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)
- 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
Such a delicious recipe! I used this for a wedding cake two weeks ago and still complements are coming in! It's very most and lemony good!
Thank you Melissa!
Thanks so much, Joanne. So happy to hear it!
can you use fresh lemon juice in place of the water
Hi Christine, We have never tried using lemon juice instead of water. The cake will have a nice lemon flavor
with the lemon extract as well as the lemon pudding mix.
I’ve never been a cake mix or Jell-O pudding kind of person but I got so many compliments on this cake for a 60th birthday I will definitely make it again. It was fluffy and moist w excellent flavour. I used a cream cheese buttercream lemon icing to cut the sweetness and it was perfect w blueberries in August.
Hmh, Thank you so much for your nice comments on the recipe! Pairing the cake with a cream cheese frosting and blueberries sound perfect.
Hi there! I’m excited to try this recipe! I have regular pudding in hand, not instant. Think that’s ok?
Thanks!
Hi Sara, it would probably be fine-- we haven't tried it with this recipe but I've substituted the cook & serve Jello pudding for another recipe when I couldn't find instant and it didn't make a difference.
Thank you for the recipe! Just wanted to let anyone who may have allergies know that I made this with a gluten free yellow cake mix, GF flour AND Dairy free sour cream and it turned out delicious. It was baked in a Bundt pan too!
I had soo many compliments and it even stayed moist the next day when I shared leftovers at work!!
(Also used your lemon buttercream frosting recipe from the blog and made it all dairy free as well :) )
Thanks!!
Well this is the second time i’ve made this cake, measured exactly to the gram as in the recipe, and it definitely isn’t 7 1/2 cups of batter!
Both Times it was 6 cups and the only thing I can think to be different would be the Betty Crocker box mix?
Which is 461 g which when converted online is more than 15.25 ounces so that doesn’t make sense either!
Can’t figure it out…
Flavourful recipe, it does taste somewhat like the mix and not from scratch and
this is the second time i’ve made this cake, measured exactly to the gram as in the recipe, and it definitely isn’t 7 1/2 cups of batter!
Both Times it was 6 cups and the only thing I can think to be different would be the Betty Crocker box mix?
Which is 461 g which when converted online is more than 15.25 ounces so that doesn’t make sense either!
Can’t figure it out…!
Hey y'all I made a fabulouse bundt cake out of this recipe.
The topping is crushed up lemon wafers. YUM YUM
why not use a lemon cake mix? I'm going to give it a go. I'll let you know!