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!
Thanks so very much for sharing this delectable recipe for my favorite flavor of dessert!!❤️💯👏🏻🎉🥳🎆
So glad you enjoyed it, Lorene :) Thanks!
Made yesterday. It is simply delicious!!!. My family loved the taste and presentation. I could not prevent the filling from spreading across, but it turned out just fine. I did place the cake in the fridge to help getting the filling firm. I will be making this dessert often and plan to gift it to friends and family.
So glad everyone enjoyed it, Cecilia! Thanks so much :)
I’ve been studying this recipe. It sounds like a good one. How easy is it to remove the cake from the base once you have removed the side.?
Hi Lori, just run a sharp knife around the outside before removing the side and it will be all good :)
Amazing lemon dessert! Like other reviewers this will become my go to lemon dessert. I was fortunate as my local grocery store had imported lemons from Sorrento, Italy. A bit pricey but I thought for Easter, why not. The lemons were fragrant, sweet and made the dessert absolutely delicious. It was given high praise by all who had a slice.
Thank you!!!🍋🍋🍋
So glad you all enjoyed it, Susan and jealous of those beautiful lemons :) Thanks!
When I poured the filling it spread immediately to the edge, no crust after baking??? What did I do wrong?
Hi Connie, did you use full fat cream cheese?
Can I double the recipe? It looks delicious.
Hi Jenny, I think I would be more inclined to make two cakes than try to double this. What size pan would you use if you were to double it?
Would I be able to double this recipe and bake in a 9×13″ pan?
Thank you
Hi Del and yes, I suspect you could, though it might now come out of the pan as neatly as when using a springform pan. If you try it, let me know how it worked out!
Hi there,
I only have a 9 or 6 inch spring form pan. Id like to try make it with the 6 inch pan. Do you think it would work with that size?
Hi Lisa, it would technically work, though I’m not sure all the batter would fit in the pan. You may need to hold some back. The thicker cake would take longer to bake, so be sure to watch closely and bake until it looks set in the centre and the outside cake part tests clean. If you try it, let me know how it worked out.
Wanting to make this, this weekend. I only have a 9 inch springform pan, would this work? How to adjust baking time? Thanks!
Hi Amanda, while a 9″ pan would technically work, I fear your cake would be very, very thin. (It’s not very thick with the 8″ pan). Do you have any other pan in the 8-inch range (pie plate?). That would be a better choice. If you really want to try the 9″, beyond being thinner, it will cook more quickly, so start checking early (after about 20 minutes) and check often.
I am about to make this cake … such great reviews
My question is can I freeze
Hi Lynda, I have never frozen this one. I’d worry a little bit about the cream cheese part changing texture a bit, but it may do just fine. Maybe someone who has frozen it can weigh in for you.
Amazing!! I cut the confectionary sugar in the filling down a bit and it was still so delicious and rich. Will definitely be using this recipe again in the future- thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it, Rebecca :) Thanks so much!
Pray tell, how much did you cut the sugar by? I would also like to cut the sugar down.
Hi Lara, as a general rule, you can reduce the sugar by about 25%, but I have not tested this, so I have no idea how it would affect the cake. It is a cake, so sugar is an expected ingredient and as far as cakes go, this one actually has less than most.
Baked in a 9” springform pan so I made one and a half times the recipe, per another commenter. My cream cheese mixture completely covered my cake batter layer (there was no stopping it lol) but it wasn’t an issue in the end. Baked for 55 minutes and it still seemed pretty jiggly, but set up fine as it cooled. Taste was EXCELLENT, and very lemony…we loved it!! Will definitely be making again. 😋
So glad to hear, Maureen :) Thanks so much!
Love lemon! Making now, but the filling ran all to the sides, how do I keep it so some of the cake batter is showing?
Hi Bev, you can try to push it back towards the centre, but not sure how successful that will be. Did you use full-fat (not “light” or low-fat) cream cheese to make the filling?
This is an impressive spring dessert. I had to increase the ingredients by half because I only had a 9″ pan. But everything came out great. I served it with homemade whip cream. Can’t wait to make it again.
So glad you enjoyed it, Joann :) Thanks so much!
I love the idea for this cake with two exceptions. I wish it was a bit thicker and I know the cake part needs to hold together the filling and cake but there has to be a better cake than a quickbread style of cake.Seems to me no matter how careful you are with this for a base you are going to come up with something more like a filled muffin than a cake. Crumb is coarse.
I haven’t tried it yet but smells amazing so I think it will probably taste good.
I wonder if there is sponge style cake or oil based recipe as opposed to butter based (the one and only time I don’t love butter) that would hold this sort of filling. Do you have any idea?
Hi Carol, as the name suggests, this is a butter cake – a cake where there is a high ratio of butter to flour – will always produce a more dense, moist type of cake. I think that type of cake is needed to keep the lemon cream on top.I suspect a lighter cake would not hold the topping well (would just fall into the lighter batter).
I have found recipe that I will try for an olive oil lemon cake. I think the cake will be substantial enough to hold the lemon cheesecake filling. THis recipe is good and I have tasted it. It has great flavour but it just isn’t what I am looking for right now. I do not intend this to be criticism for recipe because it is a wonderful recipe.
Let me know how it works out, Carol :)
This cake is amazing! Omg! if you love lemon and cheesecake, you will LOVE this recipe. In fact this goes beyond cheesecake for me. This is a keeper for sure. To the above individual whom questioned the type of cake batter, this would not work with a sponge type cake. It’s delectable as it is and is perfect.
So glad you enjoyed it, Carol :) Thanks so much!