This Pink Lemonade Cake from scratch tastes like summertime! You will love this amazingly moist cake which has a wonderful lemony tartness. As someone who loves all things lemon, I was so excited to add this recipe to our collection of favorites!
Our lemon cream cheese frosting compliments 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!
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.
As we mentioned above, we frosted our Pink Lemonade Cake with one of my favorite frostings: Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s so easy to make and perfect for so many cake recipes (vanilla cake, white, lemon, coconut, and more)! Click here to find the recipe: Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.
Enjoy!
Pink Lemonade Cake from Scratch
Ingredients
- 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
- 1 Tablespoon (10g) lemon extract
- zest of 1 lemon
- pink coloring gel, if you want the cake layers to be pink....we used AmeriColor Deep Pink
Directions
- 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
* The Decoration: 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.
*When working with cream cheese frosting, it it is likely to become soft (especially if your kitchen is warm). If you notice that it becomes too soft to easily pipe, chill it in the refrigerator for a few minutes. ;0)
This Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe is fantastic! Find it here: Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.
Did you know that we also have a fabulous Lemon Cake Recipe from scratch on our site? It’s another great choice and definitely one that everyone should have in their recipe file! You can find it here!: Lemon Cake Recipe from Scratch.
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!
In the UK we dont have access to certain things like frozen pink lemonade ~ lets hope Brexit will allow us to trade more freely with USA and in a few years perhaps we will see all your lovely products in our shops x
In the meantime for frozen pink lemonade concentrate can we just freeze ordinary pink lemonade for this ingredient ? thanks
Looks and sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try it in my own way :) Just need to find a bit of time, very crazy around this place :) I love BeBe’s dedication to recipe creation and perfection. You guys are awesome! :)
Hi June, Yes, I hope all goes well with Brexit. I am sorry but freezing ordinary lemonade will not work for the recipe. The frozen lemonade I refer to is very concentrated, and if you were going to use it to make lemonade to drink , you would need to dilute it with quite a bit of water.
I don’t know if this will help June?
link to allrecipes.co.uk
I can’t wait to try this cake. I just made your Pink Champagne Cake for a dear friends bridal shower and it was perfection.
Thank you so much and keep the recipes coming.
Thank you ladies, yes I think the recipe will do just fine x
Hi, to the lady talking of using lemonade,I am going to try soda stream lemonade concentrate this weekend with a drop of red colouring for the pink( u could use raspberries?) just a thought as UK alternative. X
Hey thats a good idea Sarah, would you be able to leave your feedback on that idea ? great thinking x
Hi there! Going to make this for hubbies birthday on Sat. Did you defrost the pink concentrate first, or use in frozen state?
Hi Nancy, Yes, I did defrost the lemonade concentrate. Hope your husband loves his cake!
Hi. Sounds and looks amazing. a
ny alternatives for the frozen pink lemonade. Can’t get it in the uk😥.
This cake looks amazing. I am attempting to make it right now. Maybe I overlooked it, when do I add the lemon extract to the cake? This is listed as an ingredient but it is not listed in the steps.
Thank you for your help.
Hi Misty, Add it with the other liquid ingredients. Hope you like it!
The finished product – it is not as beautiful as yours but it is a hit with the family.
Yay!! Misty, I’m glad that you made it and your family enjoyed it! :0) xo
What a beautiful recipe!! I’m just curious about using a powdered pink lemonade drink mix instead of the frozen concentrate. If anybody has tried that so I don’t have to mad scientist it up in the kitchen.
I would love to try some of your recipes, but I can’t print any of them. So disappointed
Hi Annette, Just above the ingredient list, click on PRINT VERSION. You will then see a printable version, use the print function on your computer to print the recipe.
Thanks for making me look good! I just made this cake as cupcakes for a very large baby shower – over 30 guests. I got tons of complements. Topped them with your lemon cream cheese buttercream icing in a big swirl. Now they think I can actually bake!
Haha, Belinda thanks so much for your comment! You are too funny, and I’m glad that the recipe came out well for you! Wish I had some of those cupcakes right now ;0) xoxo
Could I use crystal pink lemonade for this recipe?
Hi Diana, I have never tried using that. I don’t know if the crystal pink lemonade will give you the same intense flavor as frozen pink lemonade. If you decide to give it a try, let us know how it goes.
Maybe I overlooked it. But when do you add the gel coloring?
Hi Amanda, Thank you for pointing that out. I would add the gel coloring to the batter after the 1 1/2 minute mixing or anytime during the last 2 additions of liquid. If using AmeriColor gel color, a little goes a long way. Our is actually a bit more pink than we anticipated.
Looks amazing. I don’t understand the icing on the side. Is that not the lemon cream cheese frosting? It says fill the cake layers with cream cheese frosting and then pipe vertical lines and then make stars on top with the cream cheese frosting. But the sides are pink how did that happen?!?
Hi Natalie,
The cake is frosted in our Lemon Cream Cheese frosting. We tinted it with coloring gels before piping. (The top is tinted with Americolor Lemon Yellow, the frosting around the sides was tinted with a very small amount of Americolor Deep Pink).
Hi, i live in the Netherlands and we don’t have frozen lemonade concentrate. What do i use in place of that? I do loooooove lemon very much so i love your cake and want to make it. But Unfortunatelly i miss an ingrediënt. I hope you can help me? Thanks in advance for reading and answering.
Marja.
Hi, I was wondering if I could make this into a 9 x 13?
Hi Roxane, Yes, the recipe can be made in a 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 min. Check at 30 min.
I made your pink lemonade cake for Easter. The photo is attached. One thing I realized after the fact is I should not have used us in the frosting. It clogged up my piping tip. Thanks for the inspiration
Oops that was suppose to be “zest” in the frost not “us”
Hi! How many cupcakes would it make and how long would I cook them for?
Thank you!
Hi, I make the pink lemonade cake squares that our local Dewey’s bakery is famous for but instead I use pink lemonade kool-aid dry mix in the batter, I don’t do a Reverse mix as you stated above but if I did use your recipe would I be able to put it together the old fashion way with dry mix added to wet and would I get the same result? I love making this cake in the spring and summer months but have never made it as a layer cake just squares but very interested to get your reply to see if I can use this recipe to compare
Christine – Do yourself a favor and try making this cake just as directed (reverse method, frozen concentrate, etc.). It is really amazing and I think you’ll be happy with the results.
I made this for my mother’s birthday who has been wanting a pink lemonade cake for YEARS. Everyone loved it! It’s rich, melts in your mouth, and truly tastes like a big ole glass of pink lemonade. I can’t wait to make cupcakes! How long would the baking time be for cupcakes?
Hi Emily, Your cake is lovely!! I’m happy that you like the recipe, and thank you for posting your review. If you are making cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes (check at 18 minutes). The cupcakes will bake up with very little dome. The cupcake liners can be filled approximately 3/4 ‘s full.
Thanks for sharing this perfect recipe. It was too simple!!!!!!!