The cake is delicious and citrusy. Because you poke holes in it to absorb the glaze, the cake is known as a poke cake. If you’d like, you can top this with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 1 (9×13-inch) poke cake |
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25) package yellow cake mix
- 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
- ¾ cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13-inch pan.
- To make the cake: Stir cake mix and instant pudding together in a large bowl. Add water, oil, and eggs; mix until smooth and well blended. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. While cake is still hot, poke holes in the top with a fork.
- To make the glaze: Mix lemon juice and confectioners sugar together in a small bowl until smooth; pour over hot cake and allow to seep into the holes. Let cake cool completely before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 1338 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 283 g |
| Cholesterol | 31 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 13 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 2448 mg |
| Sugars | 153 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Substituted lemon cake for yellow for a bigger lemon punch.
The whole family loved it! Very moist and Not too sweet. You can really taste the lemon.
We liked it. Not too sweet, lighter than many cakes, and super moist.
I’m so happy to see this recipe. My mother used to make this when I was a little girl. I’m looking forward to making it, tasting it and seeing if it is as yummy as I remember it.
The cake taste was excellent but I would suggest baking it less than 40 minutes- that really dried out the edges and took away from the texture. Whenever you get a clean tester from the center, I would remove it right away. The sauce was so good, I might consider doubling it next time!
I’ll admit I don’t make a lot of cake-mix cakes very often because I don’t care for the taste of them. However, I found this recipe to be quite delicious! My only deviations from the original recipe were to use a lemon cake mix in place of a yellow cake mix, and I topped the cake with a lemon whipped cream before serving. It was absolutely delicious! Very lemony, and not too sweet–which was something I was a bit worried about. I also do like how quick this was to put together. Takes almost no time to mix the ingredients and get them into the oven. I would make this again! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Made this cake with my 9 yr old granddaughter and we had a lot of fun making it. She’s been cooking with me for a number of yrs. but found new things to learn with this particular cake. Since the family loves the strong taste of lemon, we did add more fresh squeezed lemon in the lemon cake mix we used. (cut water some and added more juice). Granddaughter loved using the 80 yr old glass citrus squeezer I happened to have and oh, the best part was “poking” the warm cake and not having to wait to put the glaze on. Since this was to be a decorated birthday cake, we did put on some cream cheese frosting and proceeded to decorate with candles. First thing everyone said was how moist the cake was and loved the lemon. Hubby said it was the best cake ever! Will make again for sure.
Loved it! Getting requests for more!!!
Take it to an excellent level, adding lemon zest to glaze. Gives it a natural flavor layer.
This recipe was very good, but I would like to make it a little more lemony. The only changes I made to this recipe were I used lemon cake mix (as suggested) and I used a microplane to grate the yellow rind of one large lemon into the cake mixture. Next time I will use more rind and may replace 1/4 or 1/2 cup of the water with lemon juice.
Oh the compliments and requests for the recipe! The longer it sits the more moist it gets!
This cake was waaayyy too sweet. Also, I only baked the cake for 35 minutes and it was overdone and dry. I was confused at the baking time of 40-45 shown on the recipe…it would have been even drier had I baked it that long. Thanks for posting, but I wouldnt make this again.
This cake is awesome and so easy to make. I made it in a bundt pan…poured over the syrup and then just left the cake in the pan for awhile to soak everything up. So moist and delicious!
My husband really like it . Not to sweet or lemony.
My father in law loves lemon, I make this whenever it’s a special day, everyone loves it!
Fabulous! Made the recipe as written. The lemon flavor is zesty and delicious! My family said it’s better than store bought lemon cake!
I made it and added more lemon juice to the cake and glaze. My family loved it. I’m now making another full sheet of it. Thankyou all recipes. com and the wonders user who shared the recipe with us.
Best Lemon Cake around!!!
I followed the recipe except I used lemon cake mix. Very good, moist, and lemony. Even the kids liked it. Thanks for sharing
My family’s newest favorite treat.
Used tangerine oil instead of vegetable oil. Would have used lemon flavored olive oil if I had it. It still worked great. I added a small packet of True Lemon to the glaze to brighten it up. I would do that again After the cake cooled a little bit and turned my Bundt cake pan over onto a plate I poked the holes in the groves before adding the glaze onto the cake. Was happy the way it turned out and I would definitely make it again.