This Lemon Cream Butter Cake is the love child of a buttery lemon cake and a lemon cheesecake. A perfect marriage of the two textures and flavours.
Why I love this lemon cream cheese butter cake!
If you are a lover of lemon, you will be over the moon with this delicious cake, that brings together lemon cake and lemon cheesecake in one pan.
The buttery lemon cake forms a layer around the bottom and outside, while a creamy lemon cream cheese filling cooks up in the middle. It’s full of lemon flavour and a wonderful combination of textures. Enjoy this one chilled with a dusting of icing sugar on top.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Lemon – you will need fresh lemons, as the recipe specifies both lemon juice and lemon zest.
Cream cheese – full fat cream cheese is required to ensure the cream cheese layer bakes up properly.
Butter – Unsalted butter is recommended for this cake, but if you only have salted butter, be sure to adjust the amount as noted in the Recipe Card.
Cook’s Notes
- Be sure to place your springform pan on a baking sheet as a small amount of butter may leak out as the cake bakes. Alternately, you could wrap the bottom and sides of your springform pan with foil.
- Speaking of wrapping in foil, I have long struggled with my springform pan over-cooking the sides of my baked goods and I suspect it is because it is a dark pan. I’m always hesitant to reduce the oven temperature, but I’m thinking I will start wrapping the outside of the pan in foil to try to temper that tendency in future. I’ll let you know how that works out. (Or I guess I could just buy light pans :)
- Keep a close eye on the cake as it nears the 30 minute mark and watch closely. It will be best if you can get it out of the oven when it is just cooked, which means the outside cake part looks lightly golden and the centre of the cake looks set.
- Finally, if you want to fancy up your cake, place a paper doily on top of the cake and dust your icing sugar over it. Carefully remove to reveal a pretty pattern.
Top Tip!
Full fat cream cheese is required to make sure the cream cheese part is thick enough not to run off the top of the cake. And speaking of which, you need to add the cream cheese layer slowly, into the centre, spreading it out towards the edges, to ensure it doesn’t escape over the sides.
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Ingredients
For the cream cheese filling:
- 8 oz. full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature **do not use light, reduced fat or no fat cream cheese
- 1 cup icing/confectioners’ sugar
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
For the Cake:
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1/3 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt, reduced to a pinch if using salted butter
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 large eggs
- Zest of 2 small or one large lemons
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1/2 tsp vanilla, or vanilla bean paste
For garnish:
- Additional icing/confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F. (not fan assisted) Prepare an 8-inch springform pan by spraying with cooking spray and lining the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Place pan on a baking sheet and set aside. *Baking sheet is recommended as some small amount of butter may leak out during baking.
- Prepare the filling: In a large bowl with an electric beater or the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy.
- Add the icing sugar and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until completely combined, about 1 minute. Add the melted butter, vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat until completely combined, about 1 minute. Set aside.
- Prepare the cake batter: In large bowl, whisk together the flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk in melted (cooled) butter, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla and lemon zest just until combined. Do not over-mix.
- Pour the cake batter evenly into the prepared springform pan. Spread to the edges and level batter. Very carefully and a bit at a time, pour the cheesecake filling mixture in the centre of the cake, spreading it to within about 1/2 inch of the edge of the pan, leaving that 1/2-inch around the outside with just bare cake batter visible.
- Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the outside edges of the cake is light golden and the centre of the cake is set. You can test with a cake tester around the outside edges, but not in the centre, as it is mostly cream cheese. You want the center to be set, so you can test by moving the pan a little to see how jiggly the centre is.
- Allow cake to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and carefully remove the outer ring. Allow to cool completely at room temperature for 1 hour, then transfer to a serving plate and refrigerate to chill before serving.
- To serve, serve chilled, with a little sprinkling of icing/confectioners’ sugar.
Notes
More Lemon Cake Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
The cake was delicious and not hard to make.. the filling went a bit further when put on top of the batter but still was fine. Will be making this a lot I can see … thank you ?
So glad to hear, Tricia! Thanks :)
Hello!I just made it! Recipe was quite easy to follow.Smells wonderful!!
One question: maybe I’m not quite understand… I putt cake batter in my baking pan.After that put cheesecake filling in center leave 1/2 inch edges.But after baking it look very different than your cake in photo.Its look like pie with filling.Sorry for this example,I just try to explain))
To different textures .On your photo it’s look single texture. What I do wrong?
Anyway I think it will be tasty!
Thanks for sharing
Hi Ekaterina, I’m wondering if you used low-fat cream cheese? You definitely need to use full-fat cream cheese here, as low-fat has a very different composition and lots more moisture, so it won’t bake up with the same consistency.
My husband and enjoyed this delicious lemony desert
So glad you enjoyed it! THanks :)
Hi! My mom loves your website so I made this cake for Mother’s Day and served with fresh blueberries. It turned out soft and delicious. I tried to follow your instructions exactly, using a 8.5″ springform pan. I think I overbaked it because it looked more cheesecake-like than your photo (before baking the fluffy layer was spread into a mountain in order to keep it 0.5″ from the edges); at 35 minutes the filling was very loose/wet and the edges weren’t set, so I kept it in and checked it every 5 minutes until the edges were set, about 45 minutes. Everyone liked it and went for seconds.
So glad you enjoyed it, Saradora and yes, it is a hard cake to judge when it’s done with the two textures going on. Thanks!
Hey Jennifer, this recipe is truly amazing! Perfect combination of textures and flavors. I just finished making it the second time (added some unsweetened shredded coconut to the batter and used Meyer lemons – because my mom will love that!) and I’m super excited to have some again!
Also, what’s your favorite recipe at the moment?
So glad you are enjoying it, Julianny! Favourite recipe? Sweet or savoury? For sweet, the things I make with regularity here – my Carrot Cake Loaf, my pumpkin muffins and my rice pudding. Those are 3 things I can not keep my hands off ;)
Perfect instructions and very easy to follow. Mine looked exactly like photos. This was perfect and will be requested and baked many times. Thank you.
Ps. I have never posted an opinion on a recipe before but this one deserves it.
So glad to hear, Julie :) Thanks so much!
What do you mean by full fat cream cheese? Is that just regular cream cheese?
Hi Lori, yes, regular cream cheese, not fat free, low fat or “lite”.
This was amazing and so easy to make!
So glad to hear, Sarah! Thanks :)
Hi, I ultimately did not use all of the filling because as I was pouring it over the cake, I could not stop it from spreading all the way to the side. Do you think I over mixed the filling (increasing the volume??). Also, the end texture for my cake does not look like yours. The filling looks like a cheese cake. I haven’t tasted this yet, but I fear that I overcooked the cake to get the filling “set.” I welcome any of your thoughts! I would like to make this for guests.
Hi Sarah, the filling is really a cheesecake-like filling. Did you use full fat cream cheese for the filling?
I have a 9” and a 7” springform pan, not an 8”. I think the 7” could be the better choice and I may need to cook it a bit longer. What would you suggest?
Hi Kathy and yes, I would go with the 7-inch and extend the cooking time. I think the 9-inch would make a too-thin cake.
I’m sorry for the dumb question but do you flip the cake over or just leave on the cake pan with parchment to serve. Thank you!
Hi Laura, no, you don’t flip it over. You may be able to slide it off the parchment, if you prefer. Enjoy!
Thank you! It’s in the oven. The batter fit, we’ll see how it looks.
I’m excited to try this recipe, it looks delicious! But what is you opinion on using almond extract instead of vanilla? Have you tried it in this recipe before? I love anything almond or lemon and was just curious about how well these flavors would be combined. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Hi Micayla, you are probably asking the wrong person, as I’m not a fan of almond extract. While I like almonds, I find the extract overpowering. I would worry that it might take away from the lemon flavour, rather than enhance it. But that’s just me :) Maybe start with a touch and see how you like it.
Thank you for sharing this recipe!! It was a HUGE hit with company. I made it not knowing lemon was their favorite dessert flavoring. It was a win win as it’s my favorite as well! It was scrumptious down to the last crumb.
So glad to hear, Tara! Lemon is a favourite here, as well. Hard to beat that fresh flavour :) Thanks!
Can I use a 9″ springform pan as that’s all I have
Hi Marilyn, this cake is quite thin even in an 8-inch, so I fear a 9-inch might be too large. So you have an 8-inch cake pan? If so, I might try lining with parchment (for easy removal) and using that instead.
Jennifer, the ‘large large egg’ -what do you mean by that ? I am a novice at baking.
Was it a typo error ? The cake looks amazing and I plan to bake it this week.
Hi Len and yes, that was a typo. It’s just a large egg (fixed now :). Enjoy!
Made this cake recently when a friend was visiting from out-of-town. Didn’t know that lemon was a favourite flavour. Now I do as she asked for the receipe. A good portion of the cake made it back to her son’s household & it was further enjoyed, especially by her son. And the cake is delicious served cold!
Would definitely make again even though I wasn’t able to maintain the 1/2 inch edge. Any suggestions?
So glad it was enjoyed, Irene :) I liked it cold from the fridge, too! As for the 1/2 inch, and you may have done this, but I pile it in the inner 2/3 then spread it out from there to within 1/2 inch of the edge.
Thanks for the suggestion. Will try next time.