EASY LEMON LAVA CAKE (2024)

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ByBrandie July 11, 2019April 13, 2024

70 Comments

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This Easy Lemon Lava Cake recipe has a layer of warm pudding on the bottom and moist lemon cake on top. All sprinkled with powdered sugar!

A JAZZED UP CAKE MIX RECIPE

This Lemon Lava Cake recipe is pretty cool. The pudding layer starts at the top and ends up on the bottom. I never thought I would love warm pudding this much. It transforms the whole taste of the cake. It doesn’t taste like a boxed cake mix at all when it’s all done. If you enjoy my Lemon Poke Cake then you are sure to love this one too!

CAN I USE OTHER CAKE MIX AND PUDDING FLAVORS?

This cake could not be any easier or any tastier to make and eat. And the bonus? It can be done with just about any flavor cake mix/pudding combination you can think of. Lemon is my personal favorite but we’ve also made it with chocolate and a chocolate/vanilla combination and both were amazing!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE)

lemon cake mix
(ingredients listed on back of box; eggs, oil and water)
instant lemon pudding
sugar
cold milk
water
powdered sugar

HOW TO MAKE LEMON LAVA CAKE

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.Prepare cake mix according to package directions.Pour batter into baking dish.

In a separate bowl, combine dry pudding mixes with sugar, milk and water.

Whisk briskly for 2 minutes until it begins to thicken.

Spoon pudding mixture over cake mix batter.You could pour it on but I found I got it on there more evenly by spooning it on.

Once it is on there, it is hard to spread out since it kind just ends up sinking into the batter.Oh, I almost forgot.Put a large baking sheet underneath the baking dish before sliding it in the oven.You’ll want that underneath there while baking to catch any bubbling over of the pudding.

Bake for about 55 minutes to one hour.It’s a bit tricky to tell when it is done because the pudding layer in it always stays a bit jiggly.So, what you want to do is take a toothpick and insert it into the middle of the cake.If it only comes out with pudding – you are good.If you still see gooey cake batter on it, then you need to bake it for a bit longer.

Allow it to cool for about 20 minutes.This will allow that pudding layer to thicken up a bit more.Then serve with a bit of sprinkled powdered sugar on top.

CRAVING MORE LEMON RECIPES?

Iced Lemon Snack Cake
Lemon Layer Cake
Lemon Crumble Bars
Creamy Lemon Squares
Lemon Poke Cake (+Video)
Starbucks Lemon Loaf
Lemon Magic Cake
Classic Lemon Bars

Originally published: January 2013
Updated photos & republished: July 2019

Lemon Lava Cake

This easy Lemon Lava Cake recipe has a layer of warm pudding on the bottom and moist lemon cake on top. All sprinkled with powdered sugar!

5 from 39 votes

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Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 12

Ingredients

▢ 15.25 ounce box lemon cake mix
▢ (ingredients listed on back of box; eggs, oil and water)
▢ 2 (3.4 ounce) boxes instant lemon pudding
▢ ⅓ cup sugar optional
▢ 2 cups cold milk
▢ 1 ¼ cup water
▢ powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Prepare cake mix according to package directions.
Pour prepared cake batter into baking dish.
In a separate bowl, combine dry pudding mixes with sugar, milk and water.
Whisk briskly for 2 minutes until it begins to thicken.
Spoon pudding mixture over cake mix batter. Once it is on there, it is hard to spread out since it kind just ends up sinking into the batter.
Put a large baking sheet underneath your baking dish before sliding it in the oven.
Bake for about 55 minutes to one hour.
It's a bit tricky to tell when it is done because the pudding layer in it always stays a bit jiggly. So, what you want to do is take a toothpick and insert it into the middle of the cake. If it only comes out with pudding – you are good. If you still see gooey cake batter on it, then you need to bake it for a bit longer.
When it’s finished baking, allow it to cool for about 20 minutes. This will allow that pudding layer to thicken up a bit more.
Then serve with a bit of sprinkled powdered sugar on top.

Video

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Nutritional Disclaimer

“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

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I made this for Easter and it turned out great!! A lot of likes on this one. Thanks for sharing.
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I have made chocolate and butterscotch. Never thought about lemon! This may definitely be the next one on my to do list! Looks delicious!
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The last 2 times I’ve made this I’ve used Yellow cake mix instead and I might like it a little better that way. Such an awesome winter dessert! My family loves it!
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I made this cake my wife loves lemon but question can I use cool whip with a few drops of lemon extract for a topping of the cake ?
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See Also
Pecan Chewies Recipe
1. Hi Mardy! I don’t see why not! I usually just use the powdered sugar because I think it is pretty sweet as-is but if you are fan of some sort of topping, then I think that would work just fine! 🙂
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2. This was so good and everyone wanted the recipe – thank you!!
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I did not have lemon instant pudding, I used lemon cooking pudding. I did not prepare it. I just added it to the cake batter and whipped it in. It looked thick so I added the granulated sugar and another cup water. The batter looked right then. I poured it into the cake pan(9X13). And baked it for one hour. It looks great. The taste test is next.
Wonderful flavor! Turned out fantastic.
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1. That is fantastic Barb! I’m so happy you were able to make this work with what you had on hand!
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Can you make this a day ahead? I want to make it for Thanksgiving, but need to make it the day before. Is it good cold?
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Trying this today. Looks yummy
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Can u use any cake mix like white or yellow with different puddings I have 4 kids trying new things with them.
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1. You sure can! This should work with any combination that you think you’d enjoy!
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I love that you include nutritional information, but the serving size is missing. Is that for 1/12 or 1/8 of the cake?
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1. Hi Janet, I always tell folks to use their own trusted nutritional calculators if you need it for diet or health reasons. These are merely estimated based on the calculator that is embedded in this recipe card. This cake serves 12 individual servings.
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Has anyone ever tried to mix in cream cheese into the pudding mixture?
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1. Hi Kaleigh – I haven’t yet but I’d love to know if you do!
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I frosted it with whipped lemon frosting and some candies lemon slices for a birthday dinner. Delicious.
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1. Great suggestion Bee – thank you!
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How can I make the pudding have a more “tart” lemon flavor? I tried substituting some lemon juice but it was bitter, not tart. Can you help?
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1. lemon zest
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2. Try a teaspoon of pure lemon extract before you try zest or a combination of both.
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  1. I don’t recommend lemon extract for this particular recipe because lemon extract has alcohol in it and can throw off the flavors in this.
We loved this sweet, delicious cake!
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Can I make this in a Bundt pan and turn it over
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1. Hi Anita! I’m not sure. I’ve never tried it. As long as you had a very large bundt pan so it doesn’t spill over, it should maybe work! If you try it, please let me know! 🙂
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Brandie, I have made this recipe three times and my pudding layer stays on the top. Little “islands” of cake poke through, but nothing like what you show in your photos. Let me say that it tastes TERRIFIC, but I can’t get it to be pretty. I am using Pillsbury’s Gluten Free yellow cake mix, a 17 oz box which may make a difference. I’ve done this with lemon, coconut, and red velvet cake pudding–yum yum every time! Should I just put the pudding on the bottom, do you think?
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Made this for supper tonight and it was a huge hit. Only used half of the sugar and it was just the right level of sweetness for us. A definite keeper. Thank you for the recipe.
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1. So glad you enjoyed it. Its one of our favorites.
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Extra sugar makes it too sweet for our family.
Instead of powdered sugar, we covered it with whipped topping.
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Came out Awesome last week and I just made another one, with white cake mix split in 2 pyrex square glass pans one with banacream and the other with chocolate pudding. Im sure it will be great with this foolproof recipe!
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So yummy!
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I was beginning to make it and my granddaughter walks in and she wanted choc. so I am doing it , let u know.
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Could I use sugar free lemon pudding ??
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1. Can you use sugar free pudding
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Brandie – this was truly fantastic!! I have now made it with several flavors. Thank you – we love it!!
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