Lemon Dump Cake
on Apr 19, 2022
Lemon Dump Cake is such a delicious and simple cake made with cake mix & pudding. This easy dessert recipe needs just 4 ingredients to make!
Dump cakes are as tasty as they are easy to make- and don’t forget that ice cream or whipped cream topping! For more tasty dump cake recipes, check out our Slow Cooker Cherry Dump Cake and Pumpkin Dump Cake.
Lemon Dump Cake
I shouldn’t have to explain why easy dessert recipes are some of the best. When you’ve got a real sweet tooth, it helps to have plenty of simple and quick desserts you can whip up. That, and it helps liven a party up: who doesn’t love a good dessert? When it comes to these easy desserts, dump cakes are usually some of my go-tos- just dump in your ingredients and let them bake. With spring and summer coming around, I felt like I had to make up some of this delicious Lemon Dump Cake.
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We went out of our way to try and make this Lemon Dump Cake recipe as simple as can be: it only needs 4 ingredients and prepping it is so easy! With a dump cake recipe as simple as this, you’d think it only tasted okay but this Lemon Dump Cake turned out great. The pudding filling is creamy and sweet and the cake mix topping gets beautifully browned and rich thanks to the butter. If you need an easy summer party dessert that needs to taste great, we think this easy dump cake recipe is your best bet!
Liked our recipe? Try some other lemon dessert recipes!
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If you loved all these flavors, you’ll want to make a batch of our Lemon Lush Bars next. These lush bars combine a sweet crust with a cream cheese filling and a lemon pudding topping. Lush bars are perfect for serving up at any sort of party, picnic, or get-together and the lemon flavors make them great for the summertime!
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For a dead-simple pie recipe that everyone’s going to love, go with our Easy Lemon Pie. This simple no bake pie recipe makes for an amazing cool treat that you can have prepped and chilling in no time at all! Using pre-made and store-bought ingredients helps make this pie so easy- you’ll want to make it again and again.
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Cookies are great too, so why not take a look at our Easy Lemon Cookies too? Cake Mix Cookies are one of my favorite dessert hacks and it’s the main reason why these cookies turn out so good every time! They bake so quick too: only needs less than 10 minutes in the oven- you’ll be snacking on these treats in no time.
Ingredients for Lemon Dump Cake Recipe
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Lemon Pudding Mix – Besides lemon pudding, there’s plenty of other things you could use here. Consider making this dump cake recipe again with some of our homemade Lemon Curd! If you want to keep things really simple, try using something like a canned lemon pie filling instead.
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Milk – If you’re not using lemon pudding, you actually don’t need this!
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Lemon Cake Mix – We found this Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix and it worked great for this recipe. I’m sure almost any lemon cake mix will work for this Lemon Dump Cake.
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Butter
How to make Lemon Dump Cake
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Combine lemon pudding mix with milk according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spread pudding across the bottom of greased 9×13 baking dish.
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Evenly top pudding layer with boxed cake mix. Cut butter into pats and spread evenly over cake mix.
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Bake dump cake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until top layer browns and cake is bubbling. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
After prepping your lemon pudding, we’re going to add it to the bottom of a heavily-greased 9×13 baking dish. Spread it out evenly.
Once that’s spread, start topping the pudding with the boxed cake mix. Top as evenly as you can: if you have any big mounds or clumps, try gently spreading them around with some utensil.
At this point, cut your butter into pats and spread them evenly across the top of the cake mix layer. You can cut the butter really thin and cover all the cake mix if you want: fewer bigger pats like we did here will work too!
All that’s left is to bake. Send the cake into an awaiting 350 degree oven and let it bake for about 35-40 minutes. That top cake layer should get nice and browned and everything should be nice and bubbly when it’s done.
We recommend letting this cake cool for about 10-15 minutes before you dig in- it’s pretty hot! Once it’s cooled to your liking, feel free to dish out a serving, top with some whipped cream or ice cream, and enjoy.
Once your dump cake has cooled, we recommend covering the leftovers tightly with plastic wrap. Kept in the fridge, expect your dump cake to keep for 5 days or up to a whole week!
Lemon Dump Cake
Ingredients
- 3 boxes Instant Lemon Pudding, (3.4 oz boxes)
- 6 cup cold Milk
- 1 box Lemon Cake Mix, 15.25-ounce box
- 1/2 cup Butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Grease 9x13" baking dish and set aside.
- Combine pudding mix and cold milk.
- Whisk until blended.
- Wait for 5 minutes, then spread the pudding over bottom of a prepared dish.
- Evenly sprinkle the cake mix over the pudding layer.
- Slice the butter into pats and spread over the top of the cake mix.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is browned and bubbling.
- Let cake set for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe is so delicious I’m obsessed with it. I love it so much I’ve tried several variations that all turned out great. I tried it with fresh blueberries mixed into the cake mix and using blueberry pie filling on the bottom in place of the lemon pudding and both versions turned out fantastic. For the pie filling variation I used two 21 oz cans of blueberry pie filling and it was great! I recommend using salted butter I think it helps counteract the sweetness of the pudding (or pie filling).
Embarrassingly horrible. I used name brands, tasted bad, needed to cook an extra 20 minutes to brown the top.
A couple of people asked you how much canned lemon pie filling to use but you did not give an answer on this page. I would like to know too.
Hi Sandy! I am sorry for not getting back to the previous reader (it’s been a crazy winter here,lol). For this recipe I used 3 of the 3.4oz Lemon Pudding Mix. You could also use a 21oz can of Lemon Cream Pie Filling (Duncan Hines Comstock has this variety) but, it is only sold at Walmart and other select stores. I hope this helps and you give the lemon cake a try.
I would love to try this with lemon pie filling instead of pudding. How much pie filling should I use?
I have yellow cake mix, blueberry pie filling, and a pint of fresh blueberries. Would you recommend adding some sugar and water to the fresh blueberries before incorporating them?
It did taste good (hence 3 stars) but the pudding bubbled over in the oven and has been a mess to clean up. I used a 13 X 9 pyrex baking pan. Might try again with less pudding. Also did not brown on top like the pictures.
Hi Debbie! Wow, I have never had that problem with the pudding. I am curious if you used the small sized lemon pudding (3.4 oz)? As far as the browning of the top, this may be a difference in our ovens. If you plan to make again, I would suggest leaving the cake in the oven a bit longer. I hope that helps. This is really a tasty lemon dessert so, I hope you we can work through the kinks for you.
I did use the 3.4 oz pudding and followed directions. It looks like the pan in your picture is much deeper than mine. I just wanted to warn those who try your recipe to be aware of what can happen. Like I said it did taste good and my husband loved it. He also helped me clean out the oven (lol).
Can u use gluten free cake mix?
Would the butter be salted or unsalted.Thanks.
Hi Ron, you could use either. I used salted and it tasted great.
I love dump cakes. Lemon is my favorite flavor but have not tried a dump cake in that flavor. Will be next one I make.
For this lemon dump cake……..you didn’t include the size of the box of pudding.
Is it 3 or 6 oz box’s? Would guess it’s 3 because it’s 6 cups of milk. You just can’t guess very often with recipes. Thanks
Hi Tom! So sorry about that. I will get the size added to the recipe. The Instant Lemon Pudding size I used was 3.4 oz.
Dump Cakes are my absolute favorite. They are so easy. This Lemon Cake is so pretty and looks like spring. I cant wait to make it. Lemon pudding is fantastic. Thanks for sharing
For the Kemon Dump Cake, if you want to use the lemon pie filling instead then how many cans would you use? Then you wouldn’t need the milk? I just love real lemony desserts. Thanks for sharing the recipe
I want to know that too.