Lemonade Layer Cake

This ultra moist Lemonade Layer Cake is soft, lemony and delicious with just a hint of tartness from the concentrated lemonade in the recipe.

Keep this recipe in mind for the lemon lovers in your life! It is perfect for all sorts of occasions, from birthdays to holidays, showers, and more!

How to Make Lemonade Layer Cake

You can find the full, printable Lemonade Layer Cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans. We like to line the bottom of our pans with circles of parchment paper.
• Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
• In another bowl, combine the milk, vegetable oil, ½ cup concentrated lemonade (thawed), lemon extract, and lemon zest. Set aside.

• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and softened cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
• Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes.

• Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears. If using Yellow Coloring Gel, you can add it now or any time during the mixing process.

• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet). Slightly increase the mixer speed just until combined.

• Divide the batter between the three prepared pans.
• Bake at 325 degrees F for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
• This recipe makes approximately 8 cups of batter. Works for cupcakes also.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

We filled and frosted our cake with a creamy and delicious Lemon Cream Cheese frosting. This simple recipe comes together quickly and is SO good! It is a combination of softened cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, and lemon extract. We used a bit of yellow coloring gel also.

We've used a few different variations of lemon cream cheese frosting over the years. Today's recipe makes plenty of frosting for filling, frosting, and decorating the cake.

Decorating the Cake

Once the lemonade cake layers have cooled, it is time to decorate! Place the first cake layer on a cake pedestal or cake base. Then, we lightly brushed the top of the cake layer using some of the leftover concentrated lemonade. (This step is optional but we like the added boost of lemonade flavor).

Next, we added a layer of lemon cream cheese frosting.

Repeat these steps for the other cake layers. After applying the third cake layer, lightly brush with the concentrated lemonade and frost the cake. We like to first apply a thin (crumb coat) layer of frosting around the sides and top.

Then, we popped it into the freezer for 10-15 minutes to firm everything up a bit before applying the final coat of frosting. This optional step helps to prevent the layers from shifting around as you decorate.

Decorate the cake however you like! We used a small, offset spatula to frost and then apply texture to the frosting around the sides and top of the cake. We then added a top border using a large (1M) star tip.

Recipe FAQs

More Lemon Cakes

We have many more lemony cakes and cupcakes to share with you! You can find lots of our favorites in our collection of lemon cakes. You'll find our lemon cake from scratch, lemon buttermilk cake, lemon velvet cake, and many more.

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this lemonade layer cake. Keep it in mind for your next celebration! Your family and friends will love it. ;0)

Lemonade Layer Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This decadent Lemonade Layer Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting is so soft and lemony with just a hint of tartness from the lemonade.

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 28 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

• ▢ 8 oz cream cheese, softened (226g) We used one 8 oz package, full fat.
• ▢ 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (168g) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 2 cups sugar (400g)
• ▢ 4 large eggs, room temperature (to save time you can warm them in a bowl of very warm water for 5 min)
• ▢ 3 cups cake flour- see Notes for substitution (342g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
• ▢ ½ cup milk (175g)
• ▢ ½ cup concentrated lemonade, thawed (frozen concentrated lemonade, thawed- we used Minute Maid Brand), Save remaining for "glaze".
• ▢ ¼ cup vegetable oil (we used canola oil) (54g)
• ▢ Lemon Zest from one lemon (Optional)
• ▢ 1 tablespoon Lemon Extract (We used McCormick Brand.)
• ▢ Yellow Coloring Gel for desired shade of yellow (Optional)

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese (We used two 8 oz packages cream cheese, full fat)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon lemon extract- adjust amount to your liking (4g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
• ▢ 7 cups Powdered Sugar adjust slightly up or down to your liking (805g)
• ▢ Yellow Coloring Gel Optional. We used a very small amount for tinting.

Optional Glaze

• ▢ Lemonade Concentrate (A small amount for each layer- leftover from the lemonade used in the cake batter.)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans. We like to line the bottom of our pans with circles of parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
• In another bowl, combine the milk, vegetable oil, ½ cup concentrated lemonade (thawed), lemon extract, and lemon zest. Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and softened cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
• Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears. If using Yellow Coloring Gel, you can add it now or any time during the mixing process.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet). Slightly increase the mixer speed just until combined.
• Divide the batter between the three prepared pans.
• Bake at 325 degrees F for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
• This recipe makes approximately 8 cups of batter. Works for cupcakes also (although there will be little to no dome).

For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

• Mix the softened butter on low to medium speed until softened and smooth.
• Add the softened cream cheese to the butter, mixing at low to medium speed until smooth and well combined.
• Add the lemon flavoring. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating on low speed until blended. Add coloring gel if you are tinting the frosting.
• Continue to mix on low to medium speed until well combined and smooth. If the frosting is too thick, you can add a small amount of milk or lemonade concentrate.
• Store in the refrigerator. If making the frosting in advance, allow to sit on the kitchen counter until it comes closer to room temperature. You may need to remix.

Assembly

• Once the cake layers have cooled, place the first cake layer on a cake pedestal.
• Next, we lightly brushed the top of the cake layer with concentrated lemonade, using a silicone pastry brush. This step is optional but adds a boost of lemonade flavor.
• Next, spread with lemon cream cheese frosting, top with the next cake layer and repeat steps. Top with the third cake layer and lightly brush the top with lemonade concentrate.
• Frost the top and sides of the cake with a thin layer of frosting. At this point I like to freeze the cake for 10 minutes before applying the final layer of frosting. Decorate however you like! We used a small offset spatula to texture the frosting around the sides and top of the cake, and used a 1M piping tip for the top border.
• Cream cheese frostings are softer than buttercream. If at any time it becomes too soft to easily decorate with, just pop it in the freezer for five or ten minutes to firm it up a bit.
• This cake should be refrigerated. For optimal flavor and texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow the cake and frosting to warm and soften.

Notes

Substitution for Cake Flour: (Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour) For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

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