Calling all lemon lovers, this lemon cream cheese dump cake is about to become your next favorite dessert. It’s sweet, it’s tangy, and is made with just 4 ingredients in under 1 hour. An easy dessert perfect for potlucks, holidays, or just to satisfy your sweet tooth.

 

It’s hard to find an easier dessert that this lemon cream cheese dump cake. You just open, dump, and bake, that’s it! You don’t need any fancy mixers or bowls, just a 9 x 13 baking dish.

I have made many dump cake but this lemon version is my new favorite, especially for spring and summer. The zesty lemon flavor combined with little pockets of cream cheese is so yummy.

If you really want to take this to the next level, I highly recommend serving it with some vanilla ice cream.

I also love these other easy dump cakes, apple dump cake and peach cobbler dump cake.

Ingredients

Can you believe you only need 4 ingredients to make this amazing lemon dump cake mix recipe!

• Lemon pie filling – You can use canned lemon pie filling.
• Lemon cake mix – One box of lemon cake mix is needed.
• Cream cheese – A block of cream cheese is used to add a delicious tangy flavor. Make sure to cut it into little cubes to spread over the cake.
• Butter – I like using unsalted butter for this recipe.

How to make lemon dump cake

The full recipe and ingredient list is below in the recipe card.

Step one: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Spread the lemon pie filling in the bottom of the baking dish.

Step two: Top the lemon pie filling with pieces of the cream cheese cubes.

Step three: Spread the dry cake mix over the filling and cream cheese.

Step four: Pour the melted butter over top of the cake mix.

Step five: Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes or until the top turns golden brown. Let the cake rest about 10 minutes before serving.

Variations and substitutions

Even though this is a simple recipe, you can change up a few ingredients to make it your own. Here are a few suggestions:

• Cake mix: Try substituting the lemon cake mix with yellow cake mix, vanilla cake mix, or white cake mix. You can also substitute with a gluten-free cake mix.
• Fruit: The lemon pie filling can be substituted with other fruit pie filling like cherry pie filling, apple pie filling, or blueberry pie filling.

Heather’s recipe tips

• If you can’t find lemon pie filling you can use lemon pudding instead.
• Make sure the cream cheese is softened at room temperature.
• Spread out the cake mix in an even layer. I find that this helps the cake cook evenly.
• Pour the melted butter over all of the cake mix. This helps to prevent any dry spots.

Serving suggestions

This dump cake is so tasty on it’s own but I also like adding toppings like a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, Cool Whip, or lemon zest for a little extra burst of lemon flavor.

Storage

I think this lemon dessert is best fresh out of the oven. Store leftovers covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Reheat in the oven, covered with foil at 350 degrees F or microwave for about 1 minute.

The cake can be frozen in a freezer safe container for 2-3 months. Let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

More easy lemon recipes

I love lemon so much so that I made a list of some of my favorite lemon desserts. Here are some of my favorites.

• Easy lemon blossoms recipe
• Lemon snowball cookies
• Lemon cake mix cookies
• Lemon pound cake with cake mix

Let me know if you make this lemon cream cheese dump cake in the comments below. Be sure to give it a star rating. Enjoy!