A Lemon Cake to Die for!

If you love lemon desserts, this cake is going to become a regular in your rotation. It’s made with a boxed cake mix and instant lemon pudding, so it’s incredibly easy — and a soaking syrup poured over the warm cake takes it completely over the top. Make it the night before and it gets even better.

Why You’ll Love It

Deeply moist, never dry — the lemon pudding mix in the batter keeps every slice soft and tender
That soaking syrup is everything — lemon juice, powdered sugar, and a little butter soak into the cake and create an intensely citrusy glaze you’ll want to eat with a spoon
Easy to make ahead — it actually tastes better the next day straight from the fridge
Simple ingredients — boxed mix, a few pantry staples, nothing fancy required
Big lemon flavor — fresh, bright citrus in every bite without being overpowering

Ingredient Notes

The yellow cake mix — I use whatever’s on sale, honestly. I’ve done Betty Crocker, I’ve done Pillsbury, I don’t think it matters much. The lemon pudding mix is the Jell-O instant kind, the small box, and please don’t use cook-and-serve by accident. I did that once and the batter looked wrong from the start and I should have known better.

For the lemon juice in the syrup, I’ve used both fresh and bottled and fresh is better — it’s brighter somehow, less flat — but bottled works fine if that’s what you have. I’m not going to pretend I’m always squeezing lemons. Sometimes it’s eleven at night and the bottle is right there.

The butter in the syrup is just for a little richness. Don’t skip it. And use powdered sugar, not granulated — I tried granulated once and it was gritty and the texture was all wrong and I threw the whole syrup out and started over. Not a good night.

Ingredients

For the cake:

1 box yellow cake mix (15.25 oz — or thereabouts, most boxes are around that weight)
1 box instant lemon pudding mix (3.4 oz)
¾ cup water
¾ cup oil — I use vegetable, canola is fine too
4 eggs

For the soaking syrup:

2 cups powdered sugar
⅓ cup lemon juice (fresh if you can manage it)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons water

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350°F and grease your 9×13 pan. I use cooking spray and then run a little flour around it too, just to be safe — I’ve had cakes stick on me in the past and it’s a whole thing.

Beat your eggs in a large bowl with a hand mixer, then add in the cake mix, the pudding mix, the water, and the oil, and mix it all together until it’s smooth and combined. The batter will be thicker than regular cake batter, which is normal. Don’t panic.

Pour it into the pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. I always check mine at 30 because my oven runs a little warm — yours might be different. Toothpick in the center should come out clean. While that’s in the oven, make your syrup: whisk together the melted butter, lemon juice, water, and powdered sugar until it’s smooth. It’ll be runny, which is what you want.

When the cake comes out, let it sit for maybe five minutes — just enough that you can handle the pan — and then take a skewer or a fork and poke holes all over the top. A lot of holes. More than you think you need. Then pour the syrup slowly over the whole thing while it’s still warm and let it soak in.

Here’s the important part: let it cool completely in the pan before you try to cut it. I know. It smells incredible and it’s right there. But if you cut into it too soon, it’ll fall apart on you and the texture won’t be right. Give it a couple of hours, or better yet, do the whole thing the evening before you need it and refrigerate it overnight. That’s when it really becomes itself.

Variations

A white cake mix instead of yellow plus a little lemon zest stirred into the batter makes it taste even more lemony — I keep meaning to try that version and then forget to buy a lemon with enough zest on it. One of these years.

I’ve also seen versions of this with a cream cheese glaze on top instead of the soaking syrup — I tried that once and it was very good, but it’s a different cake at that point, something richer and denser. Good in a different way.

Storing It

Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap or transfer slices to an airtight container. It keeps in the refrigerator for three to four days, though I’ve never actually had it last that long. Day two is the peak, I think — the syrup has really settled in and the whole thing has this almost custardy quality that’s hard to describe.

You can leave it on the counter overnight if your kitchen isn’t too warm, but I always refrigerate it just because lemon desserts make me a little cautious. Something about the juice. That might not even be a real concern, but once you’ve had a suspicious dessert situation you start being careful.

Anyway. Make the cake. Make it the night before if you can. Don’t skip the soaking syrup — that’s the whole point, really.