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.
I haven’t made this yet, but I have a question: Can I use either a bundt pan or maybe a 13×9″ pan rather than 3 9″ round pans?
Before I make this… SALTED butter?
Just want to make sure…
Can this cake be made in maybe a bundt pan or a 9 x 13 pan?
The frosting was delicious. The cake had a great flavor but was heavy. Comparing it to similar recipes, this one appears to have a higher ratio of flour to butter and liquid so that could be part of the issue. It could also be that I made it in winter so, although I began with all ingredients at 70 degrees, the batter was cooler by the time I put it in the oven and maybe didn’t incorporate the necessary air while I mixed it.
The icing was awesome! Best cake icing I’ve ever tasted. The cake? Well, as others mentioned, mine came out too dense. It also didn’t have enough lemon flavor for my taste. I followed the directions exactly as stated, so I was a little disappointed. I’ll try another lemon cake recipe, but keep the lemon icing recipe.
try adding some lemon zest to batter and frosting
I made this cake for the Fire Dept guys working on Christmas Day. I wish I could sneak a corner piece. The directions are so exact, I appreciate that. Like how long to beat things. The batter was so fluffy. My heaping teaspoon of lemon zest was really heaping. 😉 And I put some in the fluffy frosting too. Thank you so much for your work on your recipes. I have never had a flop with you. Sometimes folks post things that sound good, and I’m usually disappointed. Now I’ve learned, if the don’t reveal their names, I might not be pleased with the results.
I took the egg whites aways from the yolks and whisked them a lot to get all airy, then I whisked in the yolks. Maybe that would help those who felt like it was dense. I did cut out a corner of the cake, since our son is the fire chief, it really is airy and nice flavor. 😉
Husband said this is the first lemon cake he actually enjoyed. Its so delicious. Thanks for posting!
The icing was great but my cake turned out dense. I am not sure if I should use cake flour instead of plain flour…
Not a fan…heavy, dense..very disappointing.
Cake was very easy to make and it is delicious but I had one problem, the cake seemed very heavy to me ?? What do you think I might have done wrong ?? 😔