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.
absolutely delicious! a friend requested a lemon cake with raspberry icing for her birthday and i have never done either before but it came out beautifully THANK YOU SO MUCH for running this website. blessing a lot of lives thank you!
I just made this cake…maybe for the 5th or 6th time. I made ~50 cakes in 2019 and less/year after covid. This is my favorite! I often make it 4 layers.
Absolutely delicious, moist and full of lemon flavour. I used this recipe to bake a birthday cake for a colleague; it didn’t disappoint; everyone said how much they enjoyed it
AMAZING!
I made this cake for a cooking class and it turned out beautifully. It was golden-brown, light and fluffy and just perfect.
Not overly sweet either 🙂
I had never made a lemon cake from scratch before, and I read the comments before starting. We decided to use cake flour (1:1 substitute for all-purpose flour) and added a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Since this cake was meant for a 4th of July party, we also added about 12 oz of fresh mixed berries to the batter for color, lightly dusted with flour and folded in gently. I increased the frosting recipe to 1.5x so that I would have enough to pipe rosettes. Baked the cake for 25 minutes and it turned out soft, light, and fluffy. Received many compliments at the party!
Tastes good but texture is heavier like a pound cake so did not cut nice with a fork and the soft icing. I iced 2 layers and then froze the rest to be cut up into cubes and used later in little trifle desserts with custard and rhubarb.
Flavor is Good! I will make a 2 layers next time I bake. The 3 layers are too thin & started cracking.
Oh my goodness you have been reading my mind ! I have been craving Lemon Cake sibce before Christmas . I totally agree about using buttermilk if you can with this & many cakes.
Also thank you so much for the conversion chart you added. Very helpful. You are wonderful 😇.
Hapoy New Year Rachel.
My contribution for suppers is always desert. I’ve made this cake many times. Always a hit. I get requests to do it.
Delicious as always BUT If you are baking in India, reduce the baking powder to 1 and a half tea spoons, else your cake will be bitter and inedible.