This easy Lemon Sheet Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting is made from scratch and better than a box mix! You will LOVE this moist, vibrant lemon dessert!
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Ahhhh, lemon dessers! They are my favorite (after chocolate), and they get me all excited for warm weather and sunshine! This lemon sheet cake packs a vibrant citrus punch, and the lemon cream cheese frosting is lip smacking good!
I first made this lemon sheet cake almost 2 years ago when I was pregnant with our 5th baby. I am always extremely sick during my pregnancies, and I didn’t have it in me to repeatedly test the recipe to make sure it was solid. I made it, it was wonderful, and I even brought it to a party and it was a hit. I knew it was good, but I wanted to play around with it to make it AMAZING!
My whole family loves lemon desserts, so they were pretty excited to help me perfect this recipe. You can make it in a jelly roll pan for a thin sheet cake, or use a 9×13″ pan for a thicker cake. The choice is yours – just don’t leave off the frosting!! My daughter, who doesn’t really like frosting (?!?!), said this frosting was SO good, she liked it more than the cake!!! The cream cheese keeps it from being overly sweet, and we just can’t resist that pucker from the lemon juice and lemon zest!
This cake is a winner, guys. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
And if you love sheet cakes, be sure to try my recipe for The Best Ever Texas Sheet Cake, and my Pumpkin Spice Sheet Cake with brown butter cinnamon icing!!
Jaci says
I was just gifted with some lemons, yesterday – they are not common in the groceries in Cuenca, Ecuador. Limes… more than you can imagine, but lemons are usually a private tree kind of thing.
I was wondering what things to make. This will have to be one of them.
Sandy says
I have several sizes of jelly roll pans. What do you recommend as far as size goes?
Stephanie Brubaker says
So sorry, I’m just seeing this comment. I use an 18×13″ jelly roll pan for my sheet cakes. They come out thin, so if you want a thicker cake use a smaller pan. Just make sure the sides are deep enough – at least 1″ or more 🙂
Bonnie says
This looks great and I’d like to try it for an upcoming party for 20 people. I’d like to make a square layer cake; think I could make two sheet cake sizes and cut into 4 and stack the layers with a thick layer of the icing in between each layer? What’s your best suggestion? Or would this translate to making a 9″ round layer cake cut into 4 layers total?
Stephanie Brubaker says
Hi Bonnie! This recipe makes a pretty thin sheet cake – about 1/2″ thick. So if you make 2 of them you would end up with 4 thin layers. And this icing is amazing!! But it’s not good for decorating, like buttercream. It will work perfectly for pouring over the cake, but you can’t really pipe with it. Hope this helps you! Enjoy 🙂
Gabi says
Oh my-lanta!!! THIS was amazing…
I am on no way shape or form a good Baker… cooking yes baking no…
This turned out perfect
Everyone was in heaven
I added vanilla bean to the mix and frosting.
Huge hit
Thank you for giving me the tools to finally make a great dessert