This Lemon Cake Recipe is so luscious and fluffy. It’s the perfect lemon cake full of lemon flavor, and you are going to love it!
Lemon is one of our absolutely favorite things to add to dessert. Mix it with chocolate, add it to a pie or a cake, or find any excuse you can to experiment with lemon desserts. That zing of the lemon mixed with the sweetness in the cake makes for the most mouth-watering dessert. It’s also one that most people wouldn’t expect you to bring to a party or family gathering. We all know that chocolate and white cake are the typical stars — maybe even carrot cake. But lemon cake? No, lemon cake is deemed far too fancy and decadent for someone to actually make from scratch. Yet here we are, always showing up to parties to wow everyone with lemon cake. This one will wow you too!
Do I have to use buttermilk in this recipe?
The buttermilk in this recipe interacts with the baking powder to create a fluffier cake. If you do not have buttermilk, you can easily make a buttermilk substitute.
Frosting:
This lemon cake recipe uses a cream cheese frosting. If you do not like cream cheese frosting or cannot find cream cheese, you can replace the cream cheese with butter which will create a buttercream frosting.
Can Luscious Lemon Cake be made into a 2 layer cake?
Yes, this recipe is designed for either a 3 layer cake with thin layers, or a 2 layer cake with thicker layers without making any adjustments to the ingredients in this recipe. For a 2 layer cake, add 5 to 10 minutes to the baking time.
How to Frost a Layered Cake:
The easiest way to frost a layered cake is to transfer all of your frosting to plastic piping bags. Place the empty piping bags into a tall glass to make it easier to transfer the frosting. You don’t need to use a piping tip, simply snip off the bottom. Squeeze the frosting in a spiral on top of each layer of cake, then use a knife to spread it out in an even layer. Once all layers are assembled, you can squeeze the remaining frosting around the outside of the cake as well and smooth it out.
Storage Instructions:
Due to the cream cheese frosting, you will need to store this cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
If you like this recipe, you may be interested in some of our other delicious cake recipes:
Watch the video below where we will walk you through every step of the recipe with a video demonstration.
Hi Rachel – this looks so delicious!! Would but be possible to make this same recipe in a 9×13” or other sheet pan size pan? I’d love to make it for my boss and coworkers and the sheet pan size dessert transporters little easier. Thank you so much for your advice on this!
Yes! You’ll need about 6 cups of batter for a 9×13 pan.
Thank you for the recipe
Can I use baking soda instead of baking powder?
No, I recommend sticking with the recipe as written. They behave slightly differently from each other.
I made this cake and since I didn’t have buttermilk, I made the substitute using yogurt and milk but since I do not drink regular milk I used almond milk. The cake came out very dense and not fluffy. Can using vegetable oil be ok? Instead of buttermilk?
If the cake was dense, it was likely overmixed. Cakes are a bit fickle that way. Almond milk also reduces the amount of fat in the recipe which can impact it as well. Vegetable oil replacing buttermilk isn’t a good idea as they have very different functions in the chemistry of the cake.
Taste was great, cake came out dense!
Sorry to hear that! Cakes can be a little fickle. The most common cause for a dense cake is over mixing the batter. Mixing develops gluten, and gluten strands make a cake dense. Next time, try to stir/mix the least amount possible.
If I wanted to make a 5inch or 6 inch cake do you have a suggestion for the baking time?
For a 5-inch or 6-inch cake, you’ll want to reduce both the batter and the baking time. If you’re using a scaled-down recipe that fills the pan about halfway, start checking for doneness around 25 to 30 minutes.