Today’s recipe is for an easy lemon pound cake using a pouch cake mix. In this case, it's Pillsbury Neon Yellow Funfetti cake mix. The original flavor of the mix is vanilla, but adding some lemon, lemon oil, butter, lemon instant pudding and cream cheese gave it a great lemon flavor and a soft, dense, pound cake texture that improves as it sits.
The pouches are the perfect size to make one small loaf cake.If you can't find the pouch, you could always just weigh out half a box of yellow cake. However, I tested this recipe with the Funfetti and it's obviously the key to the bold yellow color. Here's what it looks like.
I used an 8 ½ inch by 4 ½ inch loaf pan and it domed nicely, but capacity-wise, it would have been taller and more stately had I made it in a smaller 8x4 inch pan. Do you feel like the 8x4 size pans are hard to find these days? I had to special order mine because most of the ones I own and see at the store are 9x5 or even 9 ½ by 5 ½. But feel free to use a 9x5 inch anyway -- the cake will be shorter in stature but still tasty, Just remember to shave some minutes off the baking time because a large pan means more exposed surface area and a shorter bake time.
Recipe
Lemon Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 2 ounces 4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter, softened
- 4 ounces half a block softened cream cheese
- 1 package 8.5 oz Neon Yellow Pillsbury Bold Cake Mix**
- 2 tablespoons dry instant lemon pudding mix**
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- Zest of 1 lemon about ½ tablespoon
- 2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons milk
- ¼ teaspoon Boyjian lemon oil my favorite! or lemon extract
Cream Cheese Icing
- 4 ounces softened cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar – more if you like
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan with flour-added cooking spray.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice, milk and lemon oil; beat on low until mixed, then scrape sides of bowl bowl and beat on high until smooth.
- Spread the thick batter as evenly as possible in the pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes (45 if using a larger loaf pan) or until cake a skewer inserted comes out with moist cake on it rather than batter. Let cool for about 30 minutes in pan, then remove from pan and let cool completely.
- To make the icing, beat all the ingredients together until smooth and spread over the cake.
Christine from Cook the Story says
That cake shouts sunshine and happiness!
Kim F says
Love these neon colored cakes! I just saw a marble cake on Facebook that was white cake with swirls of hot pink and black. Very cool zebra look. I think it would be FUN to make marble cakes or cupcakes with these mixes!
Gloria says
Love the color of this cake. Pudding adds moisture and flavor-I like baking with it. I too could not find the 8x4. I thought I bought them, but when I measured the inside depth and width they were closer to 8,5 x 4.5. Oh well.
Always welcome your tips too!
Anna says
No worries! The other half of the block goes in the icing :). I should make a bigger point of mentioning that.
C L says
Ooops... I just realized I can just buy a small block of cream cheese. That'll work. 🙂
C L says
This looks terrific! Does this pound cake freeze well? If it does, I might make two loaves so I don't half to measure a half block of cream cheese. Half blocks tend to disappear who-knows-where in my fridge, not to be seen again for a very long time. 😉