If you've been searching for the BEST recipe for Lemon Cake from a doctored cake mix, we are happy to say that this is it!

This easy lemon cake has a lovely soft texture, is ultra moist, has fantastic lemon flavor, works for cupcakes as well as cake layers, and is sturdy enough to hold up to fondant! What's not to love?

Moist and Delicious Lemon Cake Mix Recipe

We've frosted this lemon layer cake with a luscious Lemon Buttercream, which is a new recipe for our site also! We've fallen in love with its lemon flavor and it pipes like a dream.

We're so glad to have this lemon buttercream option for slathering and swirling onto all sorts of cakes from lemon cake to homemade vanilla buttermilk cake to classic yellow, coconut and even strawberry! Lemon buttercream pairs perfectly with so many cake flavors.

However, our Lemon Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting as well as our homemade Lemon Curd Filling would both be great choices!

Easy and Delicious Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Table of Contents

How to Make a Lemon Cake- Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

First, you'll start with a simple white cake mix (look for recipes that do not contain pudding in the mix as we'll be adding a bit of lemon pudding to this recipe). We used Duncan Hines.

Combine the sifted cake mix with the flour, sugar, and pudding and whisk to blend. *Just 4 tablespoons of pudding is all that we needed to really make a difference in the texture and flavor of this cake.

We tried baking without the lemon pudding, and while it was good, the stand-out favorite among all of our family taste-testers was the version that contained pudding. The texture is more velvety and the lemony flavor is really nice. We also tried using Lemon Cake Mix instead of White, but didn't like the flavor as much.

Add the remaining ingredients, including the eggs, water, sour cream, extracts, and lemon zest. The addition of pudding, sour cream, and flour give the cake a from-scratch feel, as it is a bit denser than a straight from the box cake mix cake...but I wouldn't describe this as a dense cake. It is light, has a soft texture, and did I mention an amazing lemon flavor? SO good!

The BEST Lemon Cake: A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

This recipe makes about 7 ½ cups of batter which was just the right amount to divide between three 8 inch layers. I love cake recipes that have enough batter for three layers so that you can have an additional layer of filling! Mmmmm....bring on the lemon buttercream!

Looking for a Lemon Scratch Recipe Also?

I should also mention that while we LOVE this doctored Lemon Cake Mix recipe, we have a favorite Scratch Lemon Cake Recipe as well! If you enjoy baking scratch recipes also, this is a great one.

We hope to eventually have a doctored cake mix version and scratch version of all of our recipes!

Moist and Delicious Lemon Cake Recipe from a doctored cake mix

Lemon Cake: A Doctored Cake Mix Recipe

Nobody would guess that this amazing lemon cake recipe all starts with a simple cake mix! So moist and lemony!

Ingredients

1 box (15.25 oz.) white cake mix, sifted (Any mix without pudding in the mix)
1 cup (114g) all purpose flour (plain in the UK)
1 cup (200g) sugar
½ box (4Tablespoons, (48g) instant lemon pudding (we used Jell-O brand) Do not make pudding, use the dry mix.
3 large eggs
1 ⅓ cups (322g) water
1 cup (242g) sour cream (we use full fat sour cream)
1 Tablespoon (12g) lemon extract
½ teaspoon (2g) vanilla extract
zest of one lemon

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch round cake pans.
In the bowl of your mixer, add the dry ingredients and whisk at least 30 seconds to blend.
Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix for 1 more minute. If you are using a hand mixer, mix for a bit longer.
Pour into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Check at 25 minutes, if a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached, it is done.
Cool in the pans 5 to 10 minutes then turn out.
Makes 7 ½ cups batter
Works well for cupcakes

332 Comments

I can't find lemon extract anywhere near me. Can i use fresh squeezed lemon instead?

Hi Star, Actually, the zest of the lemon will give you more flavor. One baker reported that she added a Tablespoon of lemon jello for more flavor. I have not tried that but thought I would mention it.

My daughter wants a lemon cake for her birthday, but she wants it to have blueberries in it somehow. How can I incorporate blueberries in this recipe? In the cake, in the frosting? Thank you!

Hi Michelle, A thick cake batter is what helps to keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake pan. The blueberries are folded into the batter at the end mixing. I can't remember how thick this batter is. We use frozen wild blueberries because they are much smaller (if you have those available to you). Below is a link to our scratch lemon blueberry cake recipe. You could use the Blueberry Filling and Blueberry Frosting from that recipe. Even if the blueberries sank, your cake would still be good. Hope all goes well.

https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes-tutorials/lemon-blueberry-cake-recipe/

What is the frosting?

I just want to say I love this recipe and have used it 3-4 times now. We substitute chic pea flour/chia egg for the eggs, use vegan sour cream, and use gluten-free Cake mix and Gf for the added flour. We can only find lemon pudding mix at Walmart it seems. The cake comes out GREAT! The True test for Gf (not to mention vegan) baking is a crowd that doesn’t necessarily have the food allergies we do at our house. On Christmas Eve, the cupcakes were eaten up so fast! We didn’t even have to provide the “Disclaimer” that they were vegan and gluten free!! We did add homemade lemon curd to each cupcake. I just put our daughter’s birthday cake using the recipe in the oven even. Thank you for this recipe. It’s perfect!

Hi Sandy, In the written text before the recipe Melissa has links to Lemon Buttercream, Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting and Lemon Curd Filling.

Hi Diane, Thank you so much for posting how you use substitutions to make the recipe work for you. I am sure your comments will help other bakers who have food allergies, or bake for those who do.

Is it me or is there no butter or oil in this recipe? How is this cake good without it?

Hi Sharon, We think it is good. There is a lot of fat in the sour cream.

I made this recipe into cupcakes for a 4th of July party. Topped them with a lemon zest cream cheese frosting! Super moist, amazing flavor! Was a hit for sure! Made 36 cupcakes.