This lemon dump cake is bursting with sweet and tart lemon flavor. All you need to make this easy lemon drop cake is a handful of ingredients like lemon cake mix, lemon pie filling, cream cheese and butter. It’s a quick, easy and super simple recipe for a delicious, rich and lemon filled spring or summer dessert.
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Why Should You Make This Recipe
I have quite a few cake mix based recipes on the blog. My Pineapple Dump Cake, Strawberry Dump Cake, Lemon Poke Cake, Strawberry Crunch Cake, Brownie Cake, Strawberry Brownies, Apple Cobbler from Cake Mix and Peach Cobbler with Cake Mix are all quick, easy and delicious cake mix based recipes. I am so excited to add this easy lemon dump cake recipe to the blog. I know you’ll love it because:
- Quick desserts are the best. Whether you are looking for a sweet and delicious dish to end a meal, or you need a great last minute dessert, nothing is as delicious as or as easy as a dump cake. This lemon dump cake with cream cheese is perfect for spring and summer desserts.
- Easy to make, easy to bake. This dump cake with lemon pie filling uses just a handful of ingredients to make. All you have to do is assemble and bake!
- A simple dessert with layers of flavor. The rich and tart lemon pie filling pairs perfectly with the sweetened pockets of lemon cream cheese and buttery lemon cake crust. This lemon pie cake has lemon flavor in every bite!
Ingredients
This easy and irresistible lemon dump cake recipe requires only a handful of ingredients to make and is as simple as dumping the ingredients into a pan and baking it.
Gather lemon pie filling or lemon curd, cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, lemon cake mix and butter.
Substitutions
This lemon cobbler dump cake is meant to be quick, easy and so delicious. Here are my recommended substitutions for this recipe if you need them:
- Lemon Pie Filling: I prefer using lemon pie filling because it’s more cost efficient. However, lemon curd would be an amazing substitute. If you have a lemon curd or pie filling recipe you love, feel free to use that as well.
- Cream Cheese: Adding lightly sweetened lemon cream cheese into the lemon pie filling adds such a creamy richness to the dump cake. Use mascarpone as a substitute.
- Lemon Zest: Yet another layer of lemon flavor. Omit if you don’t have a lemon on hand. Otherwise, I highly recommend zesting one or two for even more lemon flavor.
- Granulated Sugar: This is to slightly sweeten the cream cheese. Feel free to omit if needed.
- Box Lemon Cake Mix: I prefer using lemon cake mix for the extra lemon flavor, but feel free to use any box cake mix such as vanilla yellow or white cake mix.
- Butter: I like to use salted butter for this lemon dump cake to help balance out some of the sweetness. Feel free to use any butter you like.
How To Make
This buttery and deliciously indulgent lemon dump cake is ready to bake in as little as 10 minutes. Here’s how to make this wonderfully easy lemon pie filling cake.
- Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish using a tablespoon of butter. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Evenly spread the canned lemon pie filling or lemon curd across the greased baking dish.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix the softened cream cheese, sugar and lemon zest until well combined.
- Drop tablespoon sized scoops of cream cheese on top of the lemon pie filling. Swirl or spread gently as needed to cover most of the lemon filling. Top the lemon and cream cheese filling with the lemon cake mix. Evenly spread the mix across the pan.
- Evenly cover the lemon cake mix layer with slices of cold butter. Try to cover as much of the cake mix as possible. I recommend melting an additional 4 tablespoon (57 g) of butter to drizzle on any cake mix that is uncovered by the slices of butter.
- Bake the lemon cobbler dump cake for 35- 45 minutes or until the top is a beautiful golden brown and the lemon pie filling is bubbling around the edges of the baking dish. Cool the lemon dump cake for 30 minutes, scoop into a bowl and enjoy!
How To Freeze and Store and Serve
- Store this easy lemon dump cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
- Freeze this recipe: Make and bake the lemon pie cake according to the recipe directions. Allow the lemon cobbler to cool completely. Wrap the entire dish in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. Store the dessert in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight and reheat the dump cake in the oven at 350 F (177 C) for 15 minutes or until warmed through.
- The best way to serve this lemon dump cake is warm from the oven with a big scoop of cold vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream on top!
M’s Expert Tips
- Grease the bottom and sides of the baking dish with about 1 tablespoon (14 g) softened butter.
- Add more butter. After topping the lemon cake mix with thinly sliced pats of butter, drizzle about 4 tablespoons of melted butter on any spaces left uncovered by the butter. This helps ensure there are no pieces of dried cake mix. Additionally, check the dump cake after baking for 30 minutes. If you see any dried pockets of cake, drizzle melted butter on top and return to the oven to finish baking.
FAQs
The name comes from the way this cobbler like dessert is prepared. To make a dump cake, simply dump a can of pie filling or fresh fruit into a greased dish, top with a dry cake mix and butter.
The top will be golden brown and the filling will be bubbling. Depending on the kind of dump cake, most need to bake for about 45 minutes.
Part of the charm of dump cakes is the fact that all you need to do to prepare them is to simply dump everything into a pan and bake. However, if you want to stir the cake mix topping with melted butter to make it more of a cobbler, that works well too!
More Lemon Recipes to Try
- Lemon Ricotta Cake
- Lemon Muffins
- Lemon Loaf
- Lemon Cake Mix Cookies
- Lemon Lavender Cookie Bars
- Lemonade Bundt Cake
- Lemon Pancakes
If you try this Lemon Dump Cake recipe please rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Doing so helps other readers decide if this is a great recipe to bake. Don’t forget to tag me on Instagram using @olivesnthyme so I can see what you’re baking!
Lemon Dump Cake Recipe
Equipment
- 1 9x13 baking pan or casserole dish
- 1 small bowl
- 1 zester
Ingredients
- 1 16oz. canned lemon pie filling (up to 22 oz. canned filling)
- 8 oz. (226 g) cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
- 1 lemon zested
- 1 15.25 oz. lemon cake mix
- ½ cup (113 g) salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Lightly grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish using a tablespoon of butter.
- Evenly spread the canned lemon pie filling or lemon curd across the greased baking dish.
- In a small mixing bowl, mix the softened cream cheese, sugar and lemon zest until well combined.
- Drop tablespoon sized scoops of cream cheese on top of the lemon pie filling. Swirl or spread gently as needed to cover most of the lemon filling.
- Top the lemon and cream cheese filling with the lemon cake mix. Evenly spread the mix across the pan.
- Evenly cover the lemon cake mix layer with slices of cold butter. Try to cover as much of the cake mix as possible.I recommend melting an additional 4 tablespoon (57 g) of butter to drizzle on any cake mix that is uncovered by the slices of butter.
- Bake the lemon cobbler dump cake for 35- 45 minutes or until the top is a beautiful golden brown and the lemon pie filling is bubbling around the edges of the baking dish.
- Cool the lemon dump cake for 30 minutes, scoop into a bowl and enjoy!
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