Easy Lemon Cake is made with only 4 ingredients and topped with a simple lemon glaze. There is lemon-lime soda in the cake and the glaze, making this easy lemon cake a light and refreshing dessert!
Easy Lemon Cake is one of my favorite easy cake recipes. This lemon cake recipe starts with a lemon cake mix – you can’t get much simpler than that!
We don’t drink a lot of soda at our house, but my kids love when I make this cake because there is usually some leftover Sprite for them! The cake is so light and moist and the simple lemon glaze on top is amazing – adds a little more sweetness and even more lemon flavor. This cake can be made in a regular 9X13 pan, but I love to make cakes in bundt pans because they just tend to look a little bit fancier. And easier to slice too! You don’t have to worry about trying to get the first piece out of the pan without destroying the cake!
Ingredients in Lemon Cake
Lemon cake mix – Any lemon cake mix will work!
Eggs
Oil – I usually use canola oil, but you can use coconut oil if you prefer or even melted butter works too.
Lemon-lime soda – Sprite or 7-Up or any generic equivalent will work. I haven’t tried with diet soda so I’m not sure how that would work, but I would imagine it would work fine too!
How to make Easy Lemon Cake
Preheat oven to 350°.
In a large bowl, mix the cake mix with the eggs for 1-2 minutes with an electric mixer.
Add oil and beat for 3 more minutes.
Add the lemon-lime soda and beat for another minute.
Pour into a well-greased 9X13 pan or bundt pan. Bake the cake for about 30 minutes in a 9X13, or about 40-45 minutes in a bundt pan. As soon as a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, the cake is ready!
To make the lemon glaze for cake
Mix melted butter, powdered sugar, lemon-lime soda and lemon extract together with a fork until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake.
Easy Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 1 pkg lemon cake mix
- 4 eggs
- 2/3 cup oil (vegetable, canola, coconut, etc)
- 1 cup lemon-lime soda (Sprite, 7UP, etc)
Easy Lemon Glaze
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 6-7 Tbsp Sprite
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- In a large bowl, mix the cake mix with the eggs for 1-2 minutes with an electric mixer.
- Add oil and beat for 3 more minutes.
- Add the lemon-lime soda and beat for another minute.
- Pour into a well-greased 9X13 pan or bundt pan. Bake the cake for about 30 minutes in a 9X13, or about 40-45 minutes in a bundt pan. As soon as a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, the cake is ready!
- To make the glaze, mix melted butter, powdered sugar, lemon-lime soda and lemon extract together with a fork until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake.
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TIPS FOR MAKING A CAKE IN A BUNDT PAN (AND GETTING THE BUNDT CAKE OUT OF THE PAN TOO!)
There is nothing worse than making a delicious bundt cake and then having it get stuck when you are trying to get it out of the pan! It may take a little bit of trial and error depending on which kind of Bundt pan you are using, but over the years I have learned a few tips that help make sure your cake comes out successfully!
–Use a quality non-stick pan like this one. They aren’t very expensive and the investment will be worth it when your cakes come out beautifully every time!
–Grease your pan! I know. You are wondering why you need to grease a non-stick pan because usually you don’t! In fact, most of your non-stick pans will tell you not to use cooking spray at all because it will build up on the pan and make it less effective over time. That is true, but you still need to grease the pan somehow or it will likely stick. I have a very nice non-stick Bundt pan and I was excited to try it out because I was told that nothing would stick to it and that it didn’t need to be greased at all. The cake was totally stuck in the pan when it was done baking!!!
If you have a non-stick pan, grease it with melted shortening. I have had better luck with shortening than with butter. Just melt a little bit of shortening and then apply to the entire inside of the Bundt pan with a pastry brush.
If you don’t have a non-stick pan, you can use this type of cooking spray – it works miraculously because there is flour mixed in with the spray. I have an older pan that is not non-stick and when I use this spray, my Bundt cakes come out perfectly every single time. If your pan is really old and the inside is really scratched up and your cakes keep sticking, it may be time to get a new pan!
Also, make sure to grease your pan right before pouring the batter in. If you grease the pan too far ahead of time, the oil may drip down to the bottom of the pan, leaving the sides less coated.
-Let the cake cool before trying to get it out! If you try to get the cake out immediately after pulling it out of the oven, it will probably fall apart. You don’t want to let it cool completely either, but letting the cake rest for about 10 minutes should allow the cake to be cool enough to come out of the Bundt pan easily.
-Loosen up the edges of the cake with a knife. If you turn your Bundt pan upside down and wait a couple of minutes and it still isn’t coming out, try to identify which part of the cake is stuck. Often, there is just one or two parts that are stuck and you can very gently slide a butter knife in between the cake and the side of the pan to get it unstuck.
LOVE CAKE? SO DO WE! HERE ARE SOME OF OUR FAVORITE CAKE RECIPES:
- Lemon Poke Cake Recipe
- Cookies & Cream Poke Cake
- S’mores Poke Cake
- Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake
- Orange Chiffon Cake
- Easy Zucchini Cake
- Milky Way Cake
- Buttermilk Banana Cake
- Pumpkin Poke Cake
- Easy Apple Spice Cake
- Strawberries and Cream Cake
- Raspberry Chocolate Cake
- Coca-Cola Cake
- Oatmeal Cake
- Mandarin Orange Cake with Pineapple Frosting
Easy Lemon Cake is made with only 4 ingredients and topped with a simple lemon glaze. There is lemon-lime soda in the cake and the glaze, making this easy lemon cake a light and refreshing dessert!
Ann Zeigler says
Will be making this as soon as I can get to the grocery store #Covid19
Alison says
I wish you luck Ann!
webster says
I love your recipe.
Nellie says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Suzy says
The flavor is incredible! Love the shortcut by using boxed cake mix!
Claudia Lamascolo says
I have made this cake several times and its a favorite of everyone’s .. its moist tender and taste like a scratch cake!
D says
WoW, delicious. Easy, moist and Oh so good. I used real lemon juice instead of extract. Glaze is great, but I may use less butter next time. Idk. I never can make a good glaze.
Angels says
Easy enough cake, but the frosting drizzle was horrible! It separated and was clotted, maybe because I use real lemon extract, but no drizzle needs half a cup of butter, it was greasy! I’d make the cake again, but just do a regular confectioners sugar glaze.
Terry Crylen says
I can feel the weight gain already just looking at it. Yum!
Chelsea says
Just made this with my son. He’s so so picky but loves 7UP Cake so I told him we should look up a recipe using sprite because we don’t have 7UP. So here we are lol we had a blast making it. No electric mixer so it was a challenge mixing it the way it says to. We may have made a mess 😂
Cake is baking now in Bundt form, making the icing soon as we take the cake out to cool.
Thank you for help with making beautiful memories with my sweet boy, I’m sure this cake will be a favorite and a classic from now on. ☺️