White Cake with Lemon Filling and Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Posted: 03/28/2011
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This stunningly beautiful white layer cake with lemon filling, topped with tangy lemon cream cheese frosting, is a show stopper. A special occasion dessert that is classic and delicious!
This cake has its origin in desperation. I had company coming over for coffee and dessert, and I didn’t really have time to get to the grocery store. After scrounging in my pantry, I came up with a white cake mix, a couple of lemons and a block of cream cheese. Hmmm…I took a look in in my good ol’ Betty Crocker cookbook (a great starter cookbook, by the way) and came up with the idea for this stunning layer cake.
I know, it looks like a pretty ambitious dessert for spur of the moment! But your secret to simplicity is the cake mix. Using a cake mix is so easy and helps you get a head start on this recipe.
The finished product is this beautiful layer cake mounded with lemon zest flecked creamy frosting and a tangy secret hidden inside, luscious lemony filling. White cake with lemon filling covers all the bases: it’s gorgeous to look at, and tastes heavenly.
Making this white layer cake with lemon filling
This isn’t a last minute dessert, I’m just warning you. It will take some time to put together but it isn’t difficult to do.
I have three suggestions that will make your life easier.
- Zest the lemons before cutting in half and squeezing out juice. If you’ve ever tried doing it the other way around, you’ll know why I’m telling you this.
- Take the cream cheese and butter for the frosting out of the refrigerator before you get started with the cake so they will be nice and soft when you are ready to make the frosting.
- Make the lemon filling before you make the cake (or even while it is baking) so the filling has plenty of time to chill. Chilling time is necessary for the filling to thicken properly and you don’t want to spread hot filling on the cake.
Okay, I said 3 suggestions, but here’s one more: Always make sure the cake is completely cool before frosting it. Don’t hurry and frost a warm cake. It’s disastrous, not that I have any experience with that or anything.
Let’s begin with the lemon cake filling. Flavored with lemon juice and zest, the filling is nice and tangy, a perfect counterpoint to the sweet cake. It’s basically a cornstarch thickened pudding and is cooked on the stove. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare and should be chilled in the fridge.
Next, get started on the cake. A basic white cake mix works great and is easy to prepare. No special instructions, just follow the directions on the box.
Once the cake has baked and is cooling, get started on the lemon cream cheese frosting. Hopefully your cream cheese and butter is nice and soft by now. The lemon zest and lemon juice combined with the tangy cream cheese makes this frosting so flavorful! It’s absolutely one of my favorite frostings. I could eat it by the spoonful.
Assemble the cake. Put the first layer on your cake platter. Slather the filling all over the top of the first layer, leaving a small border around the edge so that the filling doesn’t squish out. Carefully place the next layer on top and frost the cake.
Voila! You’re finished! Get ready for the oohs and aahs when you present this white layer cake with lemon filling and lemon cream cheese frosting! And then a moment of silence as everyone digs in and enjoys this wondrous dessert!
Love cake?
While this is probably the fanciest cake I have on my site, I have lots of other fantastic cake recipes! Try:
- Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Flourless Chocolate Cake with Ganache and Toasted Coconut
- Double Chocolate Pecan Cake – this is such an easy recipe!
- Clementine Vanilla Yogurt Cake – frost this cake with lemon cream cheese frosting!
- Vanilla Cupcakes with a hidden surprise
- Flourless Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake
- Cake Pops – so fun for a party!
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
layer cake
This stunningly beautiful white layer cake with lemon filling, topped with tangy lemon cream cheese frosting, is a show stopper. A special occasion dessert that is classic and delicious!
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 box of your favorite white cake mix
Lemon Filling:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- ⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (you'll need more for the frosting)
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 2 to 3 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
For Cake:
- Prepare white cake as directed on box in two round 8 or 9 inch pans. Cool completely on wire rack. You could of course use your favorite recipe for white cake if you wanted to, but as you’ve probably figured out by now, I take shortcuts whenever possible.
Lemon Filling:
- Have all your ingredients ready before you begin. Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in small saucepan. Add egg yolks and mix until egg is completely mixed with dry ingredients. Whisk in water until mixture is smooth.
- Cook over medium low heat until just boiling. Mixture will be quite thick. Immediately remove from heat and stir in butter. Gradually whisk in lemon juice until smooth. Stir in zest.
- Pour into bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a large bowl, with electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy.
- Add powdered sugar and lemon juice; beat until light and fluffy. Fold in lemon zest.
- Assembling Cake
- Slice off very top of each layer of cake to create a flat surface (not mandatory, but helpful)
- Place bottom layer on cake stand. Tuck pieces of wax paper under cake so that you can remove after frosting and have a neat cake stand when finished (again, not necessary, but helpful).
- Spread lemon filling on top of bottom layer. Do not go all the way to the edge (leave ~1/4 of an inch).
- Place 2nd layer on top of first (I like to do it upside down so the top of the cake has crisp edges). Frost entire cake with cream cheese frosting.
- Store in fridge!
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1slice, Calories: 279kcal, Carbohydrates: 52g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 48mg, Sodium: 116mg, Sugar: 47g
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
Verdict: I’m pretty sure I could live on this cake. Luckily we had a lot of company so I wasn’t tempted to actually try out that hypothesis. The tangy lemon filling is a perfect contrast to the sweet frosting. So yummy. However, I must confess that you could probably put cream cheese frosting on cardboard and I would still devour it.
Husband’s take: He likes it, but prefers white cake with chocolate frosting. Easy to please, he likes things simple and traditional. He gets white cake and chocolate frosting on his birthday. The rest of the time, I get to experiment!
Changes I would make: None.
Difficulty: Time consuming, but fairly easy.
Becky says
Should I stir the lemon while cooking? Or leave it alone? I don’t want to make scrambled eggs! Haha !!
also Would it keep overnight if I were to assemble the cake the next day??
Rachel Gurk says
Yes! Definitely keep stirring and whisking. :) You could keep the filling overnight. It will thicken slightly but should still work fine.
Karen says
I made this for my mom’s 83rd birthday….. she requested lemon cake. Her first words after first bite “this is good! ”
I added 1/4 tsp organic lemon flavoring to cake too.
Rachel Gurk says
Oh that makes me so happy, thanks for leaving a comment!
Steve Mc says
Made this for my sisters birthday. She loved grandma’s lemon cake recipe but sadly, it did not survive her. We have tried several recipes over the years only to here “It’s ok but not as good as grandma’s.” As I read this recipe I could almost taste it. My sister gave a half grimace when I brought it out… that didn’t last long. She hasn’t stopped talking about the cake! After 20 years we finally found a replacement, not for the memory of grandma, but at least the memory of her “Lemon Cake”!
Rachel Gurk says
This comment made my day! I’m so happy it was a hit! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Karen says
Your frosting ingredients don’t match your instructions! Says to add vanilla and milk, but those aren’t listed in the ingredients list.
Rachel Gurk says
Oh goodness, I am sorry! We updated this recipe and obviously overlooked a couple of things. My apologies, thank you for letting me know! It’s been corrected now.
Karen says
Under the filling ingredients it states 1/3 C squeezed lemon juice, then 1/4 C squeezed lemon juice. Is it both?
Rachel Gurk says
So sorry about that error! It’s 1/3 cup, I corrected the recipe.
Irene says
Ok, I made this lemon filling but it didn’t set. Is there a way to make it set ?
Rachel Gurk says
Hmmm, that’s strange! Did you put enough cornstarch in?
Cortnee Phifer says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made this for my husband’s birthday, per his request for a lemon filled cake and it was awesome! I love that it is semi-homemade. I was a little lazier and bought a container of cream cheese frosting and added some lemon zest to it! Thanks!
Nelle says
Going to make this for my mom’s bday on Sat. Thanks for the recipe!
Rachel Gurk says
Great! Enjoy!