Lemon Sheet Cake

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Made with a vanilla-based sponge infused with fresh lemon zest and a luscious cream cheese frosting, every bite of this lemon sheet cake is tangy, rich, and irresistible!

Prep Time25

Cook Time35

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 590kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Lemon Sheet Cake

300 g Granulated sugar
Zest of 2 Lemons
113 g Unsalted butter at room temperature
110 g Oil
3 Eggs at room temperature
240 g Greek Yogurt at room temperature
1 teaspoons Vanilla extract
375 g All purpose flour
½ teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

170 g Unsalted Butter 82% fat, at room temperature
90 g Powdered sugar sifted
340 g Cream cheese full fat (33%+) eg. Philadelphia, use it cold
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Lemon juice freshly squeezed
1-2 drops Yellow food coloring use gel, eg. Americolor

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Lemon Sheet Cake

Preheat your oven to 175℃ / 350℉ (no fan) and grease a 9x13-inch / 22x33 cm pan or line it with parchment paper on the bottom and sides for easy removal.
Finely zest the lemons into a small mixing bowl using a microplane grater then massage the lemon zest into the granulated sugar for a minute.
In a large bowl, cream the softened lemony butter and sugar together for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add the oil, followed by the room-temperature eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Finally, stir in the room-temperature yogurt and vanilla extract.
Sift the dry ingredients—flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt—into the butter mixture. Gently fold them in with a rubber spatula until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Avoid overbaking, as it can cause the cake to dry out.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Place the softened, room-temperature butter in a mixing bowl and whip it for 2 minutes. Add the sifted powdered sugar and continue whipping for another 2 minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Next, incorporate the full-fat cream cheese and vanilla extract, whipping for an additional 2 minutes. Slowly drizzle in the lemon juice while the mixer is running, and stop once it's fully incorporated. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

Assembling

Once the sheet cake has cooled to room temperature, it's time to pipe the ombre lemon cream cheese frosting on top. Move ⅓ of the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe the white frosting all over the cake. Next, add a drop of yellow food coloring to the remaining frosting, then take half of it and pipe it also on the cake. Finally, color the leftover ⅓ of the frosting with another drop of yellow food coloring (this will create the darkest hue), and finish the piping decoration. Garnish with lemon slices, mint, or basil.
Serve the lemon sheet cake fresh. Any leftovers can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.

Notes

Ingredient notes:

Measure your ingredients with a digital scale for accuracy.
All cake ingredients must be at room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, butter, and yogurt.
For the frosting, it is important to use soft butter (that will whip up) but cold cream cheese (soft cream cheese would be too soft and harder to whip up).

Technique notes:

Baking this cake takes 35 minutes in my oven. However, you should focus on the texture, not the time. Apply the toothpick test (it should come out clean) to avoid overbaking your cake - that would result in a dry texture.
Cream cheese frosting is very easy to overwhip. When whipping, stop as soon as the mixture has reached a fluffy consistency and stiff peaks. It won't get stiffer after this point. In fact, if you overbeat it, it will only get runnier, and then it will break.
For the ombre frosting, only use concentrated high-quality gel food coloring, e.g., Americolor; we don't want to ruin the frosting with cheap supermarket food coloring.

Nutrition