Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

This lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting has a soft crumb and is packed with delicious lemon flavor. The cream cheese frosting is sweet and tangy, making it the perfect pairing for the lemon cake!

Easy Lemon Cake Recipe (From Scratch!)

I absolutely love lemon desserts. Lemon tastes bright and sunshine-y, and I think the slight tang is so delicious in cakes and cupcakes.

So today I’m sharing this lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. It’s a moist lemon cake made in a 9×13-inch pan that’s frosted with a tangy lemon cream cheese frosting. It’s an easy lemon cake recipe, and it takes much less effort than making lemon cupcakes or a lemon layer cake.

What I loved so much about this homemade lemon cake recipe is that the lemon flavor tastes bright and fresh, without being tart or bitter. It’s deliciously sunny, and flavorful without being overpowering. If you love lemon desserts, this lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting is the perfect recipe for you.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

What’s Needed to Make Homemade Lemon Cake?

To make the lemon cake from scratch, you’ll need:

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Unsalted butter
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Sour cream
• Buttermilk
• Lemon juice and zest

And to make the lemon frosting, you’ll need:

• Unsalted butter
• Cream cheese
• Powdered sugar
• Lemon juice
• Salt
• Milk

You can find the measurement for each ingredient in the recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make Lemon Cake with Lemon Frosting

This homemade lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting is a cinch to make! Here are the basic steps to mastering this recipe:

1. Prep: Preheat the oven and grease a 9×13 pan.
2. Dry Ingredients: Sift or whisk together all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt).
3. Rub: In a small bowl, combine the sugar with the lemon zest and rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers. This activates the oils in the zest creating bigger and bolder flavor.
4. Wet Ingredients: In a large bowl with an electric mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment), beat together the sugar and lemon zest mixture with the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until combined.
5. Stir: Turn the mixer to low speed and add the sour cream, lemon juice and buttermilk and mix until combined.
6. Combine: Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until a few streaks of flour remain.
7. Bake: Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and bake as

Welcome to the weekend, my friends! It’s been a gorgeous week for walking outdoors here in Ohio, despite a couple of tornado warnings – those were a first for this desert girl! I’m grateful that we didn’t have any property damage near our home and we’re praying for all of the families in Logan County who suffered so much loss. 

My mom has been visiting this week and we’ve enjoyed the time with her. She’s headed home today, and just in time to keep our house from feeling too empty, my brother and his fiance arrived last night to spend next week with us. (Have I mentioned how much I love having friends and family visit??)

ON THE BLOGS THIS WEEK:  Do you like Reuben sandwiches? If so, you might go a little bit crazy over these corned beef sliders – my family sure did!

Corned beef dip is a creamy, cheesy, slightly tangy dip generously filled with chunks of corned beef along with a bit of sauerkraut and caraway to give it that unmistakable Reuben sandwich flavor.

Hearty meatballs, sweet pineapple, and colorful bell peppers are tossed with your favorite barbecue sauce and simmered in the slow cooker to make these sweet and sour meatballs that the whole family craves.

Gently sauteed in maple syrup and butter these maple glazed carrots are a side dish that disappears fast every time I make it.

Crispy cauliflower, toasted bread crumbs, and nutty, savory parmesan are wonderful together in this scrumptious side. This roasted garlic parmesan cauliflower is snackable right off the pan.

Bursting with the sweet tang of blueberries in every bite, blueberry compote is one of my favorite ways to top a serving of crepes, a no-bake cheesecake, or a bowl of ice cream.

Rum raisin ice cream is full of rum-soaked raisins mixed in custardy vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum. This recipe is a little bit old school and a whole lot of creamy delicious.

What I’m CRAVING: These California roll sushi bowls look so good! They’ve been stuck in my head for a couple of days now. 

My FAVORITE THING this week is this water bottle. Here’s the deal. We own a lot of water bottles. If there’s an addiction to trying new water bottles, I may have it. However, I’m obsessed with this water bottle. I’ve been trying to up my water drinking game and thi

Weekly Menu Plan – Mar. 18 to Mar. 24

We are gearing up for Easter so the menu plan next week features an Easter teaser! We also have our new fish tacos on the menu and an easy slow cooker meal for Sunday dinner! It’s a winning menu for the week!

Monday: Bacon BBQ Chicken

Tuesday: Fish Tacos

Wednesday: Brown Sugar Ham

Thursday: Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Friday: Buttermilk Pancakes

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Slow Cooker Beef Brisket

READ: Weekly Menu Plan – Mar. 18 to Mar. 24

Corned Beef Dip is a creamy, cheesy, slightly tangy dip generously filled with chunks of corned beef along with a bit of sauerkraut and caraway to give it that unmistakable Reuben flavor.

Served with toasted rye bread, rye chips, crackers, or bagel chips this is a dream-come-true snack for everyone who loves a great Reuben sandwich!

Hot Reuben Dip

Have we established well enough just how much my family enjoys Reubens? The idea of a hot Reuben dip might’ve been the easiest sell ever in the history of recipes we’ve tried.

My kids scraped this bowl clean just minutes after I set it in front of them. It was good that I had set aside a portion for Sean to try later, because there was nothing left at all by the time he made it to the kitchen.

Corned Beef Dip

You’ll need the following ingredients to make this recipe:

• cream cheese
• mayonnaise or sour cream
• Thousand Island dressing
• caraway seeds
• horseradish
• sauerkraut
• corned beef
• shredded Swiss cheese
• toasted rye bread, rye chips, crackers, or bagel chips

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Classic Lemon Bars Recipe

The best lemon bars are a classic spring recipe made with a buttery crust and gooey lemon filling. Top this lemon bar recipe with powdered sugar and you’ll have an easy and delicious spring dessert!

When April and May hit is just means lemon desserts like iced lemon cake, lemon meringue pie, lemon cheesecake cookies and these lemon bars! There’s nothing better than a sweet and tart lemon recipe to finish of a party or dinner as we head into the summer months.

Lemon bars are one of those classic recipes that you probably think of when you think lemon treats. For good reason! They’re delicious.

The trick to a good lemon bar? Lots of fresh lemon juice and lemon zest.

You’ll also want a soft and buttery crust for your lemon bar recipe. All that gooey filling has to top something!

Ingredients for the Best Lemon Bars

You will need a few basic baking ingredients to make these bars along with a few fresh lemons. Here is what you will need to make this delicious recipe:

Crust:

• Sugar: just regular granulated white sugar
• Unsalted Butter: needs to be softened to room temperature
• Flour: all purpose flour is all you need
• Salt: cuts through the sweetness and tartness and enhances all the flavors
• Lemon Juice: the juice of about 1 lemon

Filling:

• Eggs: creates the richness and creaminess of the filling
• Sugar: adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemons
• Flour: helps thicken the filling and gives it structure
• Salt: enhances all the flavors
• Lemon Juice: fresh lemon juice is preferred and you’ll need 3-4 large lemons
• Lemon Zest: you’ll need the zest from about 1 lemon
• Powdered Sugar: used for garnish to balance out the tartness and to make the bars look extra pretty

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. BONUS: If you want a gluten free lemon bar, check out our gf lemon bar recipe.

How to Make Lemon Bars

There are two parts to this recipe – the crust and the filling. Both parts are super simple! Here are the steps:

Crust:

Start by creaming 2 sticks of softened butter and sugar in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. This will be the base of your really tender crust. Then you’ll add the flour and sugar to bring it all together to form a dough.

The dough will likely be a little crumbly at this point so add in a bit of lemon juice unti