This Pink Lemonade Cake from scratch tastes like summertime!
I just love the uniqueness of this recipe and flavor– Pink Lemonade Cake isn’t a dessert that you see too often, but it should be!
Just one bite and you will be convinced. This amazing cake belongs in your recipe file of favorites!
As someone who loves all things lemon, I was so excited to add this recipe to our collection.
Unlike our popular Lemon Cake recipe (which we also love), this Pink Lemonade Cake has an extra boost of tartness from frozen Pink Lemonade concentrate. This is a cake flavor that both kids and adults will love!
We decided to frost our pink lemonade cake layers with our lemon cream cheese frosting. It complements this flavorful cake perfectly, making it a dessert that we will turn to for summertime gatherings for years to come.
In fact, I have a feeling that I’ll be making this cake year-round…it’s just that good!
Reverse Creaming Method
Like many of our scratch recipes, this cake is made using the Reverse Creaming Method of mixing.
This method refers to the order that ingredients are added, which is a bit different than the traditional way. Cakes made with the reverse creaming method are slightly denser, and have a wonderful velvety quality.
We go over all of the mixing details clearly in our Recipe, but if you’d like a bit more information, we have a free cake video tutorial on the method here!: Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.
Mmmm…Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
As we mentioned above, we frosted our Pink Lemonade Cake with one of my favorite frostings: Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.
This luscious Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting is so easy to make and perfect for so many cake recipes (vanilla cake, white cake, lemon, coconut, and more)! Click here to find the recipe: Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.
A Quick Tip: Keep in mind that cream cheese frostings are softer than buttercream frostings. They are more heat sensitive also.
So, if you find that your frosting is too soft to easily pipe with, chill it to firm it up a bit. (If that doesn’t work, add a bit more powdered sugar to thicken.)
Also, some have trouble with the heat of their hands softening the frosting in the piping bag while they work. If you have hot hands ;0), you may consider rotating between two piping bags (chill one while using the other).
How to Decorate the Cake
To decorate the cake, I filled the cake layers with our Lemon Cream Cheese frosting recipe, and then frosted a thin crumb coat.
Then, I used a 2D piping tip to pipe vertical lines around the sides, piping from bottom to top all the way around.
Then, I used a french tip (Ateco 869) to pipe stars all over the top with the lemon cream cheese frosting. I love this simple style of decorating! So quick, easy, and inviting! I wish I had a slice right now.
Pink Lemonade Cake from Scratch
This moist and delicious Pink Lemonade Layer Cake has the perfect amount of tartness, which is balanced with a luscious layer of lemon cream cheese frosting!
Ingredients
For the Pink Lemonade Cake Layers
- 2 1/2 cups (285g) cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups (300g) sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoon (12g) baking powder
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 T) (169g) unsalted butter....Cut into 1/2 inch slices onto waxed paper to soften slightly (still very cool
- to the touch). If it becomes too soft, refrigerate for a few minutes. Do not soften in microwave
- 4 large eggs
- 3/4 cup (190g) frozen pink lemonade concentrate (thawed) ( if you cannot find pink, you can use regular frozen lemonade)
- 1/2 cup (121g) milk
- 2 teaspoons (7g) lemon extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- pink coloring gel, if you want the cake layers to be pink....we used AmeriColor Deep Pink
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened but still cool to the touch
- 2 8oz packages Cream Cheese (453 total gram weight) Use full fat cream cheese. Do not use reduced fat or cream cheese in the tub containers. Soften very slightly
- 2 teaspoons (8g) lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon (4g) lemon extract, optional
- Zest from 1 lemon, approximately 1 1/2 teaspoons (3g)
- 6 to 6 1/2 cups (690g - 747g) powdered sugar, adding more if necessary
Instructions
For the Cake Layers
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch round pans
- In the bowl of your mixer add the dry ingredients, flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Whisk to combine dry ingredients for 30 seconds.
- In a separate bowl, add the eggs, Pink Lemonade concentrate, lemon extract, zest & milk.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the slices of butter a few pieces at a time to the dry ingredients. Increase the mixer to medium speed and beat until the dry ingredients look crumbly like coarse sand. Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Method is important when using Reverse Creaming. With the mixer on low speed SLOWLY ADD 1/2 of the egg mixture, increase to medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. The batter will become thick and fluffy. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. ADD THE PINK GEL COLOR, Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- Let the cakes cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out.
- Works well for cupcakes
- Makes 7 cups batter
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cut butter into 1/2 inch slices and add to the bowl of your mixer, beat until smooth.
- Cut the cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating until blended.
- Add the lemon juice and lemon zest. 1 teaspoon lemon extract, optional for a stronger lemon flavor.
- Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until well blended.
This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly and remix. Do not microwave to soften.
Love Lemon? We do too! Here are a few more of our FAVORITE Lemon Cake Recipes!
Lemon Cake Recipe from Scratch
Lemon Cake- Doctored Cake Mix Recipe
Lemon Raspberry Swirl Pound Cake
Sharing our Best Recipes and Cake Tutorials!
Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to check out our full collection of FAVORITE cake and frosting recipes in our Recipes Section! You can also find all sorts of fun, free cake decorating tutorials in our Free Cake Tutorials Section!
Hi Tammie, Yes, I think it would be the same measurement as the lemonade. The only cake we have made with alcohol is the Pink Champagne Cake recipe. Good luck, let us know how it goes.
loved it!!!!
Hi we don’t have frozen lemonade concentrate in the uK. Can you tell me what I can use as an alternative please ?
If you can not get Pink Lemonade just use the regular lemonade (the pink color just comes from raspberry juice so you could add up to 10 drops of liquid red food coloring for just the right amount of pink color). This is a great cake!!!
I made this recipie twice and both times the cupcakes rose beautifully but shrunk once taken out of the oven. I am wondering if the baking powder is simply too much? the flavors were amazing, pity more stores don’t carry the pink lemonade…but what do you think? An amazing rise but then the cupcakes shrinking? they still tasted good but I would like them to stay a high cupcake.
My girls and I made these today as cupcakes and they were AMAZING! So happy to have found this recipe and it is so easy to make.
Hi Whitney, That is wonderful!! Thanks so much for posting your thoughts on the recipe!
Can the lemonade cake w/cream cheese frosting be stored at room temp?
Hi Alice, because of the cream cheese frosting, you would want to keep it chilled until closer to the time of serving.
Can I use two 9″ pans with this recipe and did you sift the flour?
Hi Pam, You can use 9 inch pans but your layers will not be as high. I did not sift the cake flour. I spoon the cake flour into a measuring cup and level off the excess with the back of a knife. I hope you will enjoy the cake.
The cake came out wonderfully! Wonderful recipe. Personally I would prefer less lemon extract but definitely a recipe I will use again.
Can you use regular King Arthur flour instead of the cake flour? I find cake flour seems to produce a more dense, less moist and not as high layer.
Hi Ellenmarie, I think the issue is with the reverse creaming method and not the cake flour. Some bakers do not have success with it. You might want to re-write the recipe into the conventional mixing method. I would definitely write out the recipe. The order in which the ingredients are added is different so it is easy to leave out something. Count the ingredients to make sure everything is listed on your new recipe. If you only have all purpose flour, you can make cake flour by doing the following. For each cup of flour, remove 2 Tablespoons and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (corn flour in the UK). This recipe has 2 1/2 cups flour so you will measure out that amount of AP flour, remove 5 Tablespoons and replace that with 5 Tablespoons of cornstarch. Whisk to blend and you are all set. Cake flour will give you a more tender cake. Hope you will enjoy the recipe.
I made the pink lemonade cake and i t turned out gummy? What did I do wrong?
Hi Rhonda, I am sorry you had a problem. Were there gummy streaks in the cake layers? That usually means that the batter was mixed for too long or at a mixing speed that was too high. It should not be beaten above medium speed.
What is lemonade concentrate? I don’t think we’ve got it in my country. Do think it’d be fine to use 100% fruit juice instead?
Hi Manuella, Lemonade concentrate is made using a process of removing the water from the lemon juice, resulting in a much stronger lemon taste. I am sorry but using 100% fruit juice will not give you the distinct lemon taste needed for this cake.
Hi can you use this recipe for a Bundt cake
Hi Angela, I have not made this recipe in a bundt pan, but it should be fine to do so. This recipe makes 7 cups batter. To find out how much batter your bundt pan will hold do the following. Add cups of water to within 1 1/2 inch of the top of the pan. The number of cups gives you the cups of batter your pan will hold. If you are using a pan that has a dark interior, reduce the baking temperature by 25 degrees. We bake our bundt cakes on the next to lowest level in the oven. Hope you will enjoy the recipe, let me know.