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!
Just the Right Amount of Tartness
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.
Tips for Working with Cream Cheese Frosting
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 Pink Lemonade Cake
To decorate our pink lemonade 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 ½ cups (285g) cake flour
- 1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 2 ½ teaspoon (12g) baking powder
- 1 ½ sticks (12 T) (169g) unsalted butter....Cut into ½ 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
- ¾ cup (190g) frozen pink lemonade concentrate (thawed) ( if you cannot find pink, you can use regular frozen lemonade)
- ½ 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 ½ teaspoons (3g)
- 6 to 6 ½ 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 ½ of the egg mixture, increase to medium speed for 1 ½ 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 ½ 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!
Sharing our Best Cake 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!
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My son made me this for my bday. He's 15 and loves to bake! It was delicious!!! With the leftovers, I like to heat mine up in the microwave for a short time so it's hot and frosting is melting! Oh my goodness, it is BOMB
Hi Lisa, Happy Birthday! What a sweet thing for your son to do! Thank you for you nice comments on the recipe. I have never tried melting the frosting, it does sound good.
I made these as cupcakes for my daughters birthday party and everyone seemed to like them. The lemonade flavor shines through, I am not a lemonade lover but I thought these were pretty good. Thank you for another successful recipe.
Hi Mrs C, I'm happy you gave the recipe a try! Thanks so much for posting !
Hello, I am wanting to make a three layer six inch cake. Can I do this using this recipe or do I need to make extra batter and frosting?
Hi Jeannette, This recipe makes approximately 7 cups of batter so
you will be fine with the recipe and frosting as written. A 6x2 inch round pan can hold 2 cups of batter, maybe a bit more. Hope you will enjoy the cake.
Thank you so much!!! The cake turned out beautifully and my granddaughters loved it.
Jeannette, your cake is so pretty! I love the look, thanks for posting!