This Easy Lemon Sheet Cake with cream cheese frosting is a lemon lover’s dream! It’s prepared with a boxed cake mix, lemon pudding mix, and a few kitchen staples, resulting in an incredibly moist and flavorful lemon cake.
This cake is perfect for Easter (or any holiday), birthdays, potlucks, or a sweet treat to enjoy at home with family. This recipe is based on my popular coconut sheet cake (have you tried it?) and is SO EASY to prepare!
Why You’ll Love This Cake
- Simple and budget-friendly ingredients: This recipe uses simple and affordable ingredients that are easy to find.
- Quick and convenient: Utilizing a boxed lemon cake mix and pudding mix not only speeds things up, it results in a moist and flavorful cake.
- It’s delicious! This sheet cake has the perfect balance of tangy and sweet flavors.
Ingredients Needed
- Boxed cake mix – You’ll need a 15.25-ounce lemon cake mix. I used Duncan Hines in this recipe.
- Pudding mix – A 3.4-ounce package of instant lemon pudding mix (make sure it’s not cook and serve!).
- Eggs
- Sour cream – Full-fat Greek yogurt can be substituted for sour cream.
- Vegetable oil
- Water
- Frosting ingredients – Cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and lemon extract.
How to Prepare
For the detailed instructions, please see the recipe card.
- Mix the cake batter in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
- Pour the batter into a prepared 13 x 9 pan.
- Bake in a preheated oven.
- Prepare the cream cheese frosting while the cake is cooling.
- Frost the cake once it has cooled.
- Decorate the cake. While this step is optional, I decorate my lemon cake with sliced fresh lemon and yellow sugar sprinkles. It’s such a beautiful presentation!
Helpful Tips
- Ingredients at room temperature: Ensure your eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, and butter are at room temperature. This helps to achieve a smoother batter and frosting.
- Don’t overmix the batter: Mix the batter just until smooth and combined. Overmixing can result in a dense cake.
Decorating Ideas
Although decorating the frosting is completely optional, it makes for such a beautiful presentation and doesn’t take a lot of extra effort. Here are some ideas:
- Sliced fresh lemons
- Yellow decorating sugar
- Lemon zest
- Fresh mint sprigs
- Raspberries or strawberries
- Crushed lemon candy
- Edible flowers
Storage
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Behind the Scenes
I recently made a Facebook post with a photo of my little studio setup to validate that all of the recipes I post on my site are personally made and tested by me – I test my recipes until I feel certain that they are delicious enough to pass along to you to enjoy with your family. The responses were pleasantly overwhelming (thank you!).
A few people commented and messaged, wanting to see more of the “behind the scenes,” so I am including a photograph of my setup when I photographed this cake. I love photographing delicious food! If this is something you’d like to see more of, please comment and let me know, and I will do my best to include a photo in future recipes. And I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we did (it was devoured after photographing!).
More Easy Cake Recipes
Easy Lemon Sheet Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 (15.25 ounce) lemon cake mix I used Duncan Hines
- 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ cup sour cream room temperature
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup water
For the frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ cup butter softened
- 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or liberally spray a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray.
- Beat together cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, and water with a hand mixer on medium speed (or with a stand mixer using a paddle attachment) until smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
- Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (my cake was ready in 32 minutes using a glass pan) or until a toothpick inserted in the center is removed clean.
- Place cake on a wire rack and allow to cool.
- While cake is cooling, prepare the frosting by beating cream cheese and butter in a large bowl with a hand mixer until smooth. Slowly add powdered sugar while continuing to beat until smooth. Add lemon extract and mix until combined.
- Spread frosting over cooled cake.
Notes
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Nutrition
If provided, nutritional info is a courtesy, is not guaranteed and should only be considered as a guideline.
Judy
This cake is absolutely delicious. So simple and easy to make but tastes from scratch. It sure is a hit with my family!