This Lemon Drop Cake is just tart enough to almost pucker your lips and sweet enough to have you scraping every bit of frosting up.
Looking for an easy lemon cake recipe?
Look no further than lemon cake! It’s bursting with sunshine-y lemon flavor that’s perfect for any occasion. Forget lemon cake mix and make this gorgeous lemon drop cake from scratch right in your own kitchen.
When you think of your favorite summer dessert, lemon probably comes to mind (unless you hate lemons, but then you wouldn’t have clicked on this recipe). We love making lemon desserts, whether it’s limoncello gelato, North Carolina lemon pie, or lemon cheesecake coffee cake. This lemon drop cake takes the cake (literally). It’s got the perfect amount of zesty lemon flavor to last you through the summer.
What Is a Lemon Drop Cake?
It’s like a lemon drop cocktail and white cake mix got a little frisky, resulting in this dreamy lemon drop cake. We start by making the lemon cake with your basic cake ingredients. Then, we add two secret ingredients – ice water and egg whites. The ice water keeps the cake nice and moist, and the egg whites create a super fluffy batter. Then, we make the lemon curd, which goes in between the cake layers for a tangy twist. Finally, we make the lemon frosting for the perfect finishing touch.
What you’ll love about this recipe:
What You Need to Make Lemon Drop Cake
Cake
Lemon Curd (filling)
Frosting
How to Make Lemon Drop Cake
- Prep the oven and pans: Heat your oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 round cake pans (8 inches each) for baking. Parchment paper liners are optional but can help with easy removal.
- Mix the dry stuff: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set that aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar: In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together softened butter, shortening, sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest until light and fluffy.
- Add the wet ingredients: Beat in the egg until just combined. Then, slowly add the dry ingredients and ice water alternately in 3 parts, mixing on low speed until everything is incorporated.
- Whip and fold in the egg whites: In a separate mixing bowl, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until they form soft peaks (don’t overbeat!). Gently fold these fluffy egg whites into the cake batter.
- Bake the cakes: Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway through baking. A toothpick inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean when done.
- Cool the cakes: Let the cakes cool in the pans for 20 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Make the lemon curd (optional filling): While the cakes cool, you can make the lemon curd. This involves mixing lemon juice, zest, eggs, sugar, and butter over low heat until it thickens like pudding. Strain it and cover it to prevent a skin from forming.
- Make the lemon drop frosting: In a saucepan, whisk sugar and flour together. Add milk and cream, then cook and whisk over medium heat until it thickens and boils (about 20 minutes). Let it cool completely in a mixer bowl before adding butter and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. Add some lemon curd for extra lemon flavor (adjust frosting consistency as needed).
- Assemble the cake! Once the cakes and frosting are cool, it’s time to assemble. Place a cake layer on a platter, spread some lemon curd (if using), and top with another layer. Repeat with curd and another layer. Finally, add the last cake layer and frost the entire cake with the lemon drop frosting. Decorate the top of the cake with lemon drop candies and chill for a bit before serving.
Expert Recipe Tips
- Skip the bottled lemon juice for this recipe. Freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest pack a much brighter, more vibrant lemon flavor.
- Make sure your cakes are completely cool before frosting them. This prevents the frosting from melting and keeps your cake looking sharp. A cooling rack is your friend here!
- Getting enough juice out of your lemons can be a challenge. Here’s a trick: Microwave a whole lemon for 20-30 seconds on high. This helps soften the flesh and release the juices more easily.
How to Store Leftovers
Store leftover cake in a cake storage container or airtight container for a few days. For longer storage (up to a month or two), you can freeze the unfrosted or unfrosted cake. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum foil, then place it in a freezer-safe container or bag. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
With its vibrant lemon flavor and light, fluffy texture, this lemon drop cake is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. If you try this recipe, please rate the recipe card and leave a comment down below to help out the next reader!
Lemon Drop Cake
AmericanEquipment
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter - softened
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- grated zest of one lemon
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups cold ice water
- 3 large egg whites - at room temperature
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
For the Lemon Curd
- 3/4 cups fresh lemon juice - about 6 lemons
- grated zest of 2 lemons
- 2 large eggs
- 7 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 4 tbs butter - at room temperature
For the Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups butter - soft but cool, cut into small pieces
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup lemon curd
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter 3 8" round cake pans.
- Line with parchment paper and butter the parchment paper. Dust the cake pans with flour and knock out any excess flour.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening together, about 4 minutes. Add the sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest. Beat on medium speed until fluffy.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Add the egg, and beat until just combined. Reduce the speed to low.
- Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the ice water, in three additions. Scrape down the sides and mix on low to make sure everything was incorporated.
- In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Be careful no to over beat.
- Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.
- Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and cool for 20 minutes before turning out and cooling completely.
Make the Lemon Curd Filling:
- In a small bowl, pour the lemon juice over the lemon zest and let stand for 10 minutes. In a nonreactive bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until combined.
- Add the lemon zest and and lemon juice to the egg mixture and whisk until just combined.
- Place your bowl containing the egg mixture over a double boiler.
- Continuously stir the mixture with a heatproof spatula until the mixture has thickened to a pudding-like texture.
- Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk in the butter until emulsified. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.
- Take a sheet of plastic wrap and press it into the mixture and around the bowl so that he curd does not form a skin.
- Do not refrigerate the curd unless you are saving it for future use.
Make the Lemon Drop Frosting:
- In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together.
- Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 20 minutes. (At about the 10 minute mark things start to change and thicken a bit. At the 15 minute mark, start really paying attention to prevent burning your frosting).
- Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Cover with a clean dish towel and beat on high until cool. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; mix until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and 1/2 cup lemon curd and mix until combined. Go on, take a taste test. If the frosting is too soft, refrigerate it until it is the proper consistency. If too firm, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until.
Assemble the cake:
- Refrigerate the frosting for only a few minutes until it can hold its shape.
- Place one cake layer on a serving platter and trim the top, if needed, to create a flat surface.
- Spread about 1 cup of the lemon curd evenly on top. Add the next layer and trim if needed.
- Add the remaining lemon curd and smooth. Top with the last cake and trim if needed.
- Crumb coat the cake and refrigerate for about 15 minutes to set.
- Frost the sides and top of the cake with the frosting.
- Garnish with lemon drop candies and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes to set.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional informations provided as a courtesy and is only an approximatation. Values will changes based on ingredients used.
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Recipe FAQs
I love lemons! It’s wonderful that you have had such a great figure in your life. Beautiful cake!
I love this post, Kita. Role models and mentors can really be as life shaping as parents sometimes. Gorgeous cake.
I’m glad you have an awesome woman in your life. And I’m glad she likes lemons! 😉
This cake is stunning! Awesome job!
aw what a sweet post. i’m glad you can be real and not make up fluffy stuff. i’m sorry for your loss but it seems like you have had great influences in your life. the cake is gorgeous!!
amazing.
Lucky you to have the support you do, in whatever form that may be!
What a gorgeous cake!! Love anything lemon.
What a blast from the past! I totally forgot about lemon drops. Your tri layer lemon cake looks awesome. I love thick, dense slices of cake with creamy filling. Beautiful!
Fluff isn’t what it’s made out to be. I’d take a real post like this (and the cake that goes with it) over fluff any day. Thanks for being you, Kita.
That is a gorgeous cake, and I appreciate your un-fluffed post. I also don’t have a typical mother-daughter relationship with my mom. We get along great, she’s just never been someone I call for advice, to whine, etc. It seems like many women’s mothers are like their best friends and that is a foreign concept to me. But I still love her dearly and appreciate the role she continues to play in my life.
This cake looks lovely! Any mom (or mother figure) would love it!
I am not hugely into lemons, but my wife sucks on fresh lemons all the time. She’d love this creation! Awesome job decorating it.
This is so adorable! Love the lemon flowers!! 🙂
This is a really hard day for a lot of people, I know. I’m so, so fortunate that my mom’s still around and thoughts like yours help remind me not to take that for granted. Each day she’s with me is precious.
That being said, I’m not real big on fluff, being a ‘lay it all out there’ kind of person myself. So, thanks for just being who you are too. That’s why I read you. 🙂
The cake looks amazing (thank you for not making something chocolate). I’m going to need lemons. And more eggs. I have to go squeeze some chickens.
First…just stop being so talented..just stop, ok? 🙂 The person you made this cake for is going to love it so much…how can she not? I also feel the same way as you do on Fathers day. I cant even go on FB on that day…I just break down!
Yum! I just made olive oil lemon cakes and I have been in a lemon-y mood! Thanks for sharing! I am definitely saving this one 🙂
This is gorgeous Kita!
Not all posts can be light and fluffy, I don’t think I could stand that! It’s great that you had other great women in your life, sometimes our mother figure isn’t our mother at all! I’m sure any lady would enjoy this lemony cake though, I know I would
YUM!!! Love Lemon Drops! This cake looks gorgeous, and the sweet little story behind it was cute 🙂
I’d be completely content with a slice of this!
This is a lovely tribute to a woman who played a special role in your life, Kita. It’s as heartwarming as any Mother’s Day post…perhaps more so, because the blood relationship isn’t there, but the love still is. Gorgeous cake too!
Giving birth isn’t the only thing that makes one a mother so I’m glad you had the woman you needed at the time you needed her. I share her love of lemon curd in cakes…big time!
I read your old post and this one. Life can be complicated and it’s hard to follow special day to “celebrate” just like how others do. But it seems like you found happiness and great mother figure. It’s a wonderful post to dedicate for her. I really love how you take pictures of this beautiful cake, Kita!
Biological or not, Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate any special woman in your life that does just what you described in this post! This cake is beautiful and is the perfect way to show your appreciation!
Mother figures come in lots of different forms, and I’m pretty sure any mother figure would adore this cake. I’m a stepmom, and I really appreciated this post. Thanks Kita!
This post is so heart worming and the cake.. well its plain gorgeous! I love its simplicity and the lemon drops 🙂
This post is so heart warming and the cake.. well its plain gorgeous! I love its simplicity and the lemon drops 🙂
That cake looks beautiful. I love the lemon drops! I will definitely have to try this out.
Gorgeous cake!!
Ok – I’m crying now!! I hope you know how very much I LOVE YOU!!!
Such a wonderful tribute to the woman, that even if she wasn’t your birth Mother, she stood by your side all these years!
The cake looks fantastic Kita!
What a wonderful tribute to that special woman in your life Kita =) And the cake looks pretty darn good too – you’re definitely better at decorating them than I am! Hehe
in the middle of making this cake and it says to cream Butter and SHORTENING, but no shortening is listed in Ingredients. I found the same recipe on another blog, and it lists 1/2 cup of shortening. Hoping this is what you used!
This cake looks absolutely beautiful… I wish I were a better baker and cake-decorater because, if I was, this would be the first thing on my list of things to make!
I love every component of this cake.
This looks SO good! I love lemon cakes, and can’t wait to give this one a try 🙂
wow, that looks so good! I love that you used lemon curd too.
Yummy! Love me a lemon cake…and this one is so pretty!
BTW- how did I not know that you design websites. Hmmm, one of these days when I get a winfall of money. 🙂
lovely post!!
Very cute. Looks retro chic, too.
Your directions say to cream the butter and shortening together, but you did not list shortening in the list of ingredients, so I don’t know the quantity of shortening to use to make the cake. I am very interested in making the cake.
Iv never seen a homemade cake recipe using water. Could I use cold milk?
I am not an expert baker and tend to follow the recipes exactly because I always worry I will mess it up. If you use milk – please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Mmm that sounds positively divine! I love lemon drops, so of course this cake would be delicious 🙂
The shortening called for in the instructions is not listed in the ingredients.
Hello, I want to try this recipe for a bake sale at church. Question , Can this cake be left out at room temperature for as few hours? Also Why the ice cold water. I am need to baking cakes.
Hi Deborah. Yes, once the cake is finished, it can sit for serval hours at room temperature. This cake is a behemoth to make! So high fives if you are new to baking cakes for giving it a try. You can make the curd ahead of time and have it ready when you bake the cake. Also, here is another great lemon recipe perfect for bake sales: Triple Lemon Cake Loaf. Also, I found this great link for why temperatures matter when making cakes. I hope this helps!