• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Pinch My Salt

Food, Recipes, and Photography

  • About
  • Contact
  • Recipe List
  • The BBA Challenge

Quick and Easy Lemon Cake

September 14, 2007 by Nicole 47 Comments

Lemon Jello Cake

This is the lemon cake that my Nana usually always makes for me when I go home to California. We both forgot about it during my last visit and I didn’t realize until I got back to Sicily that I hadn’t had my Lemon Jello Cake fix.

Luckily, I have the recipe! And lucky for you, I’m going to share it!

This is one of the easiest cakes you can make and I will argue that it’s one of the best-tasting cakes you will ever eat.

What makes this cake so great is the glaze. The cake is baked in a jelly roll pan so it is only about an inch thick. After it’s done baking, you pierce the cake all over with a fork and spread it with the sweet-tart lemon glaze. The glaze sinks down into the cake and the result is the best lemon cake EVER!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Nana’s Lemon Jello Cake

1 package yellow cake mix
1 small package lemon jello
3/4 C. water
4 eggs, well beaten
3/4 C. oil

glaze:
Juice and zest of 2 lemons
2 C. powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 18 x 13-inch jelly roll pan.

2. Pour cake mix and lemon jello powder into a large bowl; whisk together to remove any large lumps. Stir in the water then add eggs and oil. Blend, using a wooden spoon, with 50 strokes. There will be lumps, this is ok.

3. Pour batter into a greased and floured jelly roll pan; smooth batter with a spatula so that it is even. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees, checking after the first 20 minutes.

4. While cake is baking, mix together powdered sugar. lemon juice and zest.

5. While cake is still warm, pierce with fork all over then spread glaze evenly over the top. Allow to cool, then cut into squares and serve.

Mixing the Batter

As you can see, the batter will be lumpy. It’s important to smooth the batter evenly with a spatula after pouring it in the jelly roll pan, so that it will bake evenly.

Cake Batter

One of the greatest inventions ever, the microplane grater is perfect for zesting a lemon in seconds!

Lemon Zest

How do you juice your lemons? I usually just squeeze them by hand, using a small strainer to catch the seeds.

Squeezing Lemons

When making the glaze, you don’t have to use a cute little whisk like this one. But it always puts a smile on my face!

Mixing the glaze

After the cake comes out of the oven, pierce it all over with a large fork. The holes will allow the yummy lemon glaze to penetrate the cake.

Piercing Cake

After the glaze is poured over the warm cake, make sure to spread it out quickly and evenly with spatula.

Pouring Glaze

As the cake cools, the glaze hardens just a bit. Now is the time to dig in with your fork before dividing the rest into squares!

Finished Cake

Related Recipes:

  • Giant Lemon Sugar Cookies

Around the Web:

  • Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake from Tartelette
  • Layered Lemon Cake from Smitten Kitchen
  • Lemon Curd Cake from Alpineberry
  • Best Lemon Cake Ever from Fancy Toast

Subscribe to Pinch My Salt by e-mail

Filed Under: Desserts, Vegetarian

Previous Post: « Tomato Paella with Chorizo
Next Post: How to Make the Best Buttermilk Biscuits from Scratch »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bruce says

    September 18, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    What is the size of a jelly roll pan? Is this the same as a half sheet?
    Reply
  2. Nicole says

    September 18, 2007 at 3:10 pm

    Jason: Well, you eat it, remember! The thick white part is dipped in chili-salt and eaten as a snack. I can't remember if I told you that I tried it at a festival after you guys left. Bruce: It is a half sheet pan, 18"x13". The cake can easily be baked in a regular rectangular cake pan though, just add extra baking time since it will be thicker. Just bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
    Reply
  3. christina says

    September 18, 2007 at 4:15 pm

    i just made it for the first time. and i got RAVE reviews from my husband--who doesn't like desserts without chocolate--and everyone i've given a piece to. i want to hoard it!
    Reply
  4. Soph says

    January 31, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    i'm really late on this so i don't know if you'll get it, but... i just made this, except at the last second at the store i decided to buy pineapple jello instead. try it some time! it's like lemon-y pineapple upside down cake. so delicious
    Reply
  5. Nicole says

    January 31, 2008 at 4:17 pm

    Soph: Thanks, I'll give it a try sometime!
    Reply
  6. Sheri Shenk says

    September 29, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Oh My Goodness!!! My mom began a tradition, bringing this cake to our second son on his birthday every year from the time he was about 3 years old. He turns 39 this week, and his only request was "Grandi's Lemon Jello Cake." Hiding his cake became the ultimate challenge for his 3 brothers. No one ever felt satisfied with one serving . . . I found the remaining cake still in the pan in some pretty peculiar places, well hidden from the birthday boy! Will be baking this on Friday . . . once again. "Grandi" went to Heaven in 1995, but her cake lives on forever!
    Reply
  7. Ann Scott says

    February 2, 2009 at 11:39 am

    I made this cake one Sunday afternoon and it is so easy to make and so delicious. My husband got up the next morning for work and had a piece of cake @ 6:00am and made the comment "sweety this cake is so delicious". Very easy to make and so moist and delicious.
    Reply
  8. Nicole says

    February 2, 2009 at 1:37 pm

    Ann:So happy to hear that you and your husband enjoyed the cake so much! It will always be one of my favorites (especially when my grandma makes it for me!). :-)
    Reply
  9. Emily says

    November 7, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    My grandmother makes the same, or a very similar recipe, but she bakes it in a bunt pan. It's ridiculously good for something made with jello. We made it a couple of years ago for a graduation party, and we just kept adding lemons to the glaze. It was delish.
    Reply
  10. Carrie says

    November 13, 2010 at 12:28 am

    Is it made with lemon jello or lemon pudding by jello?
    Reply
  11. sheri says

    November 13, 2010 at 9:17 am

    It is made with lemon jello. A standard birthday/special occasion cake made regularly by my mother for one of our four sons. He's now 41 and still asks for it 80)
    Reply
  12. Lorene says

    January 4, 2011 at 6:00 pm

    No waaaaaay!! MY nana (in California) made this exact same lemon jello cake for me every year on my birthday. I think we must share a gene pool. The sweet-tart crumbly glaze on the top is my favorite part.
    Reply
  13. SB says

    January 6, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    Absolutely wonderful. An older couple that were neighbors to my parents make this cake and when I moved, I scoured the web trying all sorts of different combinations and finally found the right one!! Thank you so much! I've used this for birthdays, Christmas, and office parties and it's always a hit!
    Reply
  14. Cadillac Eldorado says

    September 9, 2011 at 11:32 am

    Amazing post. I agree with almost everything you said!
    Reply
  15. Dusty Sydney says

    November 11, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    Nice site you have here ill be sure to bookmark and visit often.
    Reply
  16. firefox vps says

    December 10, 2011 at 1:54 am

    Nice post. I used to be checking continuously this blog and I am inspired! Extremely helpful info particularly the remaining section :) I handle such information much. I was seeking this certain information for a long time. Thank you and good luck.
    Reply
  17. Andrew Smith says

    December 17, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    Truly revealing thanks, It is my opinion your trusty audience would probably want far more content similar to this carry on the excellent content. http://thehousefitness.fbmakemoney.com/
    Reply
  18. dessert recipes says

    November 6, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    Fantastic lemon cake. Absolutely great tasting and easy to prepare. Love it. Nice work on the images too.
    Reply
« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Posts by Category

Copyright © 2023 · Privacy · Terms and Conditions