Springtime Lemon Cake: An Easy Cake Mix Recipe

One of my husband’s favorite recipes is this easy lemon cake. It’s super easy because you just have to doctor up a basic yellow cake mix, and it’s really good, too. I need a good dose of springtime in my life, so we made this cake a couple weeks ago, and it was just the ticket. If I can’t have sunshine outside, sunshine in my mouth is the next best thing!

Since we are a gluten-free household, we started with a Hodgson Mill Gluten-free Yellow Cake Mix, but you can start with any yellow cake mix you like. The gluten-free cakes will be more dense, so if you use a normal cake mix, your cake will probably be much fluffier than what I have pictured.

Springtime Lemon Cake

Cake

  • Yellow cake mix (if you want an extra lemony taste you can also use a lemon cake mix)
  • 3/4 Cup apricot nectar
  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 Cup oil
  • 2 tsp lemon extract

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl or KitchenAid type mixer. Pour into an ungreased 9×13 cake pan and bake at 300 degrees for 50-60 minutes

Glaze

  • Juice of 3 lemons
  • 2 Cups powdered sugar

Mix lemon juice and powdered sugar in a medium mixing bowl.

When the cake has cooled for 10 minutes, use a fork to poke holes in it. Pour the lemon glaze all over the cake and let stand for 20-30 minutes while the glaze soaks in and the cake cools a bit.

Enjoy! It really is like a taste of springtime melting in your mouth!

More Gluten-free Goodness on Overstuffed:

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Megan Kubasch

I cannot wait to try this 🙂 Since I have been reading your blog and evaluating some lifestyle choices I have made the decision to minimize the amount of gluten in my diet, and I am feeling so much better already. It has only been about a week, and I can already notice a major difference in how my body feels. Thank you so much for posting such great gluten free content 🙂

Lori

LOVE these simple but useful tips Lara!! Thanks so much!!

Lara

I am so glad to hear that you are starting to feel better! It was the same for me. It was amazing to go off gluten and realize that I had more energy and felt better overall. Now to really cut sugar. Augh!

Kelly Rodriguez

This looks delicious! And the fact that it's gluten free…all the better. I love the addition of apricot. It must be a great flavor combination. Will definitely be trying this. Stopping by from the Bloggers on Blogspot FB group. 🙂

Kelly
alovelylifeindeed.com

booklover

I am using Wonder for my book club at school and agree it can be transformational. I am a little saddened by the concept of a Book Club for Girls though. Was there a reason that it was just for girls? It seems such a shame when we spend our lives as teachers trying to break down these barriers.

Lara

This book club is something my daughter does with her friends each summer, outside of a school setting. It is a book club for girls because she is at an age where she wouldn't want to invite boys. I just asked her what she thought of inviting boys and she said, "Well, I'm not opposed to it if other people wanted to have boys at their book club, but I like it being me and my girlfriends."

Of course, all of the activities here would work great for boys, too! Perhaps when my daughters are a little older they would want to invite boys. For now, I'm just thrilled that she wants to have a book club!

Lara

We do it once a summer, but I haven't blogged about it before. I don't have photos from prior book clubs, but maybe I will take the time to blog about our activities. 🙂

Jill C

Yummy! This looks delicious! Thankfully I'm in the process of doing my grocery list and can easily add these ingredients 🙂

Antionette Blake

This is a great recipe. Thank you for sharing it with us at the #WWDParty.

Agos

Yum! I always love a yummy and easy cake 🙂

Anne Altaffer Asplin

Mmmmmmm! I love lemon sweets, plus it is my daughter's middle name! Well, it is Lemmon -a family name, but it is pronounced the same. 🙂

Paula Parker

Yummy! I not much of an icing or glaze on my cake, but walnuts on top instead! Yes!!! Good writing on this blog. Love the if I can't have sunshine outside, I'll have it in my mouth line. Thanks for the sunshine

Morgan Timm

Springtime melting in my mouth? I'm sold! Great recipe, it looks absolutely delicious!

Lara

You'll have to let me know if the walnuts work out well! I'm mildly allergic to them, but I'd be willing to try it with pecans.

Lara

I love that! My youngest daughter has a family surname as her middle name, too. But I like Lemmon–so much fun to be had with that, like making lemon cake for her. 🙂

Anne Altaffer Asplin

Yep! I have a lemon tree mural on her bedroom wall and a ceramic lamp that looks like a basket of lemons in her room, too.

Krystal Gregory

oooh looks super delicious!!

Tina

We are going to do this with our Activity Day girls, thanks so much for all the great ideas!

Jeannette Bruce

Hi
I was wondering at what age you started the no electronics .

Lara

Hi Jeannette,
I start no electronics after school/on school nights once they are in school. When I had preschoolers at home, they could use limited electronics while their siblings were at school, but once the school kids were home, even the preschooler had to abide by the no-electronics rule.

Lara

Thanks, Tina. I'd love to hear how it goes with them. 🙂

Debra Kerr Hofland

Bravo, girlfriend. Excellent advice. Think how much easier it was for our mothers to be working mothers, with fewer "distractions" (internet, pinterest, facebook, instagram–to name a few), and even LESS for kids (video games!). Good idea to have a limit on that–all the time. Children learn what we model–what's important to us. So, yeah.

Good job!

Deb at TitusTwoFriends.blogspot.com

Lara

Thank you! I have to admit that I've been slacking in the last few weeks. Something about the end of the school year and exhaustion? I'm looking forward to summer where we place a different kind of limits on electronics and have a lot of physical activity to do, and fewer commitments.

Thanks for your wonderful comment! 🙂

df

Should do cozi.com love that. Yep I try doing the night before finding things for next day

Stephanie

I agree with most of your suggestions. I'm a mother to a 20 year old that's in her junior year of college and an 11 year old boy. The mornings at our house are pretty non chaotic because we spend about 30 minutes the night before preparing for the next day. Our mornings spent around the kitchen table are such sweet times. Granted it's only about 20 minutes but that adds up over the course of 18 years. Now that our daughter is in college and 5 hours away, I'm so thankful for those precious "every day" moments like breakfast and dinner together. I look back on that time as a blessing to our family. I also drive my children to school. The afternoons, especially, is when I've noticed they give you all the important information about school, friends, problems, and accomplishments. The 15 minute drive is another great time of communication. Trust me, time really does fly by when you're raising children. Don't give up those special everyday moments with your children.

Matt Nelko

OMG #4 is SOOOOOO 1970's, Pre-Helicopter Mom Era! Imagine a mom expecting kids to get their own little a**ses out of bed! And doing their own homework!

Lara

Thank you for your thoughts, I appreciate them. I promise that I am taking advantage of talking to my children, just in different ways than you chose to. My health can't always take getting up early (though this year I've been forced to much more than when I wrote this!), but we have wonderful conversations after school, and in the car while I am taking them to their various activities, and at night before bed. We never miss a dinner together, and I'm thankful that we have made that a priority in our busy lives.

Lara

LOL. Yeah, I'm definitely not a helicopter mom, and I require things. That hasn't gone so well sometimes with the readers of this blog, but thanks for your comment and the smile today. 🙂

Lani // Life Anchored

My little guy is only 4 months but I have learned that #1 and #2 are so important to the success of our day!

Lara

Amen! And I'd better get my lazy self off the couch and start prepping for tomorrow…much as I don't want to.