Easy Lemon Cake
I LOVE to bake. Give me an apron, a recipe, and delicious smells coming from my oven and I am h-a-p-p-y. I also have a major sweet tooth, so unfortunately I have to limit the amount that I bake so I can make sure I still fit into my jeans.
While I typically enjoy baking something from scratch (watching something come together and knowing you put the effort and fresh ingredients into it is one of my favorite parts of baking), there are some days where I don’t have time or it’s just not worth the extra effort. But when the end result is as delicious as this Lemon Cake…who cares?! It’s the perfect dessert to whip up last minute for holidays, dinner parties, work events, etc.
I also have a weakness for anything lemon flavored (and chocolate chip cookies…and pink sprinkled donuts…), especially during Spring and Summer. This cake is helping me get through these last few cold weeks before Spring finally arrives!
Before we dive in, I have to be real with ya’ll…this shoot didn’t go quite as planned! First, I realized as I was mixing everything together that my ingredients listed out lemon flavored Jell-O®…but that the directions listed out lemon flavored Jell-O® PUDDING. I had already dumped the original mix in, so decided to wing it and see what happened (spoiler…it was still delicious but maybe just use the pudding if you want to make this at home :)). Second, my four month old refused to nap the entire time we were baking/shooting and my husband was out of the house so it was a lot of pausing, baby bouncing, baking, baby feeding, etc, which made the shoot take at least twice as long as it should have. And finally, I started pouring that delicious icing all over the warm cake ON the stand…which made it pool in the middle and drip all off the edges onto my counter. But, you know what? You win some, you lose some and the cake still came out smelling and tasting delicious which at the end of the day is all that matters!
So with that being said…I present to you my Easy Lemon Cake:
Ingredients:
Cake:
1 (18.25 oz) package lemon cake
1 (3 oz) package lemon flavored Jell-O® pudding mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I subbed coconut oil for this)
3/4 cup 7-up®/Sprite® (I subbed Sprite Zero® for this)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
Glaze:
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9×13-inch pan
Cake:
Put cake mix in large bowl and add Jell-O® mix. Mix well, then add eggs and beat well. Add oil, Sprite, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine. Pour in bundt pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.
Glaze:
In a medium bowl, combine lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar. Add water. Poke holes in the top of the cake and pour glaze over (I recommend doing this on a wire rack with a tray or plate underneath so you can catch the yummy goodness that drips off and re-pour it on top of the cake until it’s soaked in and perfect…hindsight really is 20/20!)
24 Comments
Candi Randolph
Looks delicious! And the photos are great, even if life interrupted the flow. Lemon is one of my favorite things so I will be giving this cake a try.
Lauren
Thank you! I just had to laugh about life getting in the way 🙂 Let me know if you try the recipe!!
Lauren
Thank you! I’d love to hear if you end up making it!
Amanda
This looks delicious – I can’t wait to bake one myself and I love that Apron! So cute 🙂
Lauren
Thanks so much! I love this apron too 🙂
Amy
Wow! That looks delicious! I have an Associate’s Degree in baking and pastry arts and this looks perfect! I love lemon flavored desserts so I’m definitely going to have to try this recipe out! Also, I love your quality of photos! Lighting is perfect! Do you mind me asking what camera/lighting set up you use? Great blog post! (y)
Lauren
Thank you! My mom took the pictures of me and some of the others, and I used her camera for the rest. She has a Canon although I’m not sure what model! We used natural lighting – my kitchen luckily has a bunch of windows!
Christine
I love lemon cake. And lemon squares. Mmmmmmm.
Lauren
Same here!!
Melanie
Oh yum! This looks delicious. Lemon is my favorite!!
Lauren
Thank you!
Louise Long
Beautiful pictures and I can’t wait to make that recipe! Lemon ANYTHING is my favorite! Your post made me smile and I love that you included your adorable baby. Getting interrupted while creating or posting a recipe is inevitable (with me it’s animals who don’t always cooperate), it’s refreshing to see you go with the flow and still make it happen! Loved the post!
Lauren
Thank you! You should have seen my kitchen at the end – it’s definitely hard with a baby but it makes it more fun too 🙂
Amy
This looks so yummy, I’m sooo going to try to make this. I love lemon cakes, and your post has inspired me to actually try baking (I actually can’t do this very well) 🙂
Lauren
You can do it! This one is a good one to start with – it’s pretty failproof!
Ashley
Lemon cake is my favorite! Sounds like a wonderful recipe. The photos of your Luke made this extra sweet.
Lauren
Thank you, Ashley!
Ola
LOVE lemon cake! This is such an easy recipe, it might cause a problem! Lol
Lauren
I’m embarrassed to admit how much of it I ate by myself after I made it 🙂
Maureen
First of all, your baby is adorable! I love a beautiful mess. I can relate to the chaos behind the scene. It’s a never-ending struggle. I love lemon cakes!This is worth a shot.
Lauren
Thank you! I love that…it definitely was a beautiful mess!
Shantel
This looks so delicious. I am a lemon lover myself and I am weak for lemon cake. I will definately be trying this recipe soon. Thank you for sharing.
Lauren
Hope you enjoy it if you end up making it!
Test
Very nice