This Pink Lemonade Cake is straight up lit, y’all—it’s like taking your go-to summer drink and turning it into a slice of heaven, packed with that zesty lemon vibe and sweet, tangy kicks. Each forkful is wrapped up in a creamy, lemonade-kissed frosting that’s the real deal, giving you all the sugar-spun citrusy feels. This ain’t just any ol’ sweet treat; it’s like a ray of sunshine served up on a plate, a true delight for your taste buds and a feast for your eyes with its vibrant splash of pink.
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This pink lemonade cake means the world to me. Growing up, I spent many Summer days in Mississippi visiting with my Big Mama. We spent most of our time in the kitchen baking cakes and whipping frostings. But, while our cakes sat rising in the oven, we sat out on the porch to escape the kitchen’s heat (not that outside was much better).
We’d chat and wish for warm breezes while sipping on ice-cold glasses of fresh lemonade. I can still feel the cool condensation dripping over my fingers. On unbearably hot days, each sip was a Godsend. Big Mama’s lemonade was always well-balanced: sweet and tart. To this day, I still make her recipe on hot days or just when I miss her the most. Today, I’m reinventing that refreshing, cool lemonade and making it the perfect Summer lemonade cake dessert! Boos, you are gonna adore this one!
The Heart and Soul of this Pink Lemonade Cake Recipe
Cuisine Inspiration: American
Primary Cooking Method: Baking
Dietary Info: Vegetarian
Key Flavor: Pink Lemonade
Skill Level: Intermediate
Ingredients to make Pink Lemonade Cake
- Cake Flour: Cake flour is a finely milled, delicate flour with a low protein content. When used in baking, it results in a super tender texture with a fine crumb. It’s a perfect choice for a lighter, airer cake like this one.
- Unsalted Butter: Unsalted butter gives you complete control of the overall flavor of any recipe. The unsalted butter in this recipe infuses pure, sweet cream flavor while still allowing the lemonade flavoring to shine through.
- Frozen Lemonade Concentrate: Pink lemonade concentrate is made with the same ingredients as traditional lemonade but with added red food dye, strawberry, cranberry, or other fruit juice to give it color. Its flavor is sweet, tart, and fruity.
- Lemon Extract: A bit of extract enhances the lemonade flavor and adds extra citrusy lemon flavor.
How to Make Pink Lemonade Cake
For the Lemonade Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan, then set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder and mix on low speed to combine.
- Next, slowly add in butter slices and allow it to mix until the flour resembles coarse crumbs.
- While butter mixes, in a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, pink lemonade, milk, lemon extract, and vanilla extract and set aside.
- With the mixer still on low speed, add the egg mixture in three batches, allowing the liquid to combine into dry ingredients until fully incorporated.
- If desired, stir in a few drops of pink or red food coloring to create a fun pink color. Spread batter into prepared pan evenly.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs. Cool in the pan on a wire rack until room temperature. While cooling, prepare the frosting.
For the Frosting:
- In your stand mixer, add butter and salt at medium-low speed.
- Next, turn the mixer down to low and slowly add the confectioner’s sugar in small portions until all is added, then turn the speed to medium-high to combine.
- Add lemonade and lemon extract and mix until nice and fluffy. Add in food coloring at this point if desired.
Tips for making the best Lemonade Cake
- Thoroughly Thaw Concentrate: If using frozen pink lemonade concentrate, make sure it is completely thawed before adding it to the batter. This ensures accurate flavor incorporation.
- Creative Touch with Food Coloring: If you add food coloring for the pink hue, do so gradually. Start with a few drops and adjust until you achieve the desired color. It’s easier to add more than to correct an overly vibrant shade.
- Room Temperature Ingredients: Allow eggs and milk to come to room temperature before incorporating them into the batter. This promotes better mixing and ensures even texture.
- Gentle Mixing: Mix the batter gently, especially when combining wet and dry ingredients. Overmixing can lead to a dense cake, so aim for a smooth but not overly worked batter.
Popular substitutions & additions
- Berry Bliss: Mix fresh or frozen berries, like raspberries or blueberries, to introduce fruity color and flavor bursts.
- Coconut Extravaganza: For a tropical twist, add shredded sweetened coconut to the batter or sprinkle on top for both flavor and texture.
- Juice Concentrate: Switch up the flavor profiles by using different flavored frozen juice concentrates. Try other flavors like orange, lime, lemon, pineapple, or even grape.
- Candied Lemons: Top each slice of cake with candied lemons. These make for a sweet and tart edible garnish.
What to serve with Lemonade Cake
- Lemonade Sorbet or Red Velvet Ice Cream
- Easy Strawberry Lemonade Recipe
- Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches
- Tropical Wine Slushies
How to store & reheat Pink Lemonade Cake
Frosting serves as a protective barrier for a cake, so there’s no need to wrap or refrigerate this baby. Cover the cake using a cake keeper or an overturned bowl to protect it from anything in the air. Almost any frosted cake can be kept at room temperature for four to five days.
How long will Pink Lemonade Cake last in the fridge?
If you’d feel more comfortable refrigerating the cake, or you just prefer cold cake, that’s cool too! Chill the cake uncovered for 15 minutes to harden the icing, then tightly wrap it in plastic wrap.
Can I freeze Lemonade Cake?
When freezing, I recommend that you freeze slices individually so that you can thaw a piece at a time without committing to the whole cake. Place each slice on a parchment-lined baking sheet in the freezer. Let them sit for a couple of hours until the cake slices are hardened. Once hardened, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or parchment paper, then store them in an airtight container. Freeze your lemonade cake for 2-3 months. Thaw on the counter for a few hours before enjoying.
Frequently asked questions
Don’t fret, not having cake flour won’t ruin the recipe and swapping with all purpose flour is cool even though it will slightly affect the texture. You can very easily make your own cake flour, though! Luckily, I have a guide on how to make your own cake flour.
Yep you know it boos! The food coloring is optional and doesn’t affect the flavor at all. You can replace the food coloring will a small amount of beet juice. Start out with a teaspoon at a time and adjust as needed. Just keep in mind that beet juice will have a slightly earthy flavor but should be masked well by the tart and sweet lemonade.
Fo sho! This recipe would make the perfect lemonade cupcakes. Simply adjust the baking time to approx 15-20 minutes for cupcakes or until a toothpick comes out clean. To apply the frosting, you can spread it on top with a spatula or use a piping bag for an embellished frosting.
Y’all, this lemonade cake recipe was an absolute blast to experiment with! I kicked things off with a classic sheet cake base, then spiced things up by mixing in some pink lemonade concentrate and a couple of drops of food coloring to get that perfect pink vibe.
After baking, I went all in with the lemonade theme, using the extra concentrate to craft a bomb frosting. The end game? A moist, scrumptious cake that’s bursting with that tart citrus zing. Every single bite is like sipping on a cool, sweet glass of pink lemonade. Super delish, and I’m all about spreading the love, so I really hope you dig it!
Favorite Lemonade Recipes
- Homemade Lemonade
- Easy Strawberry Lemonade
- Lemonade Sorbet
- Strawberry Lemonade Bars
- Strawberry Lemonade Cake
- Blackberry Lemonade Ice Box Pie
*Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating and leave comments below!* Post a photo of how your version of the recipe came out on Instagram (using #grandbabycakes)!!
Lemonade Cake
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Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 ½ cups cake flour sifted
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup unsalted butter slightly chilled and cut into slices
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate thawed
- ½ cup milk room temperature
- 1 tablespoon lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- Pinch salt
- 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
- ¼ cup frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed 4 tablespoons
- 3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
- Optional: pink food coloring, straws, and lemon slices
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan then set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and mix on low speed to combine.
- Next slowly add in butter slices and allow to mix until flour resembles coarse crumbs.
- While butter mixes, in a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, pink lemonade, milk, lemon extract and vanilla extract and set aside.
- With mixer still on low speed, add egg mixture in three batches allowing liquid to combine into dry ingredients until fully incorporated.
- If desired, stir in a few drops of pink or red food coloring to create a fun pink color. Spread batter into prepared pan evenly.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cake toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs. Cool in pan on a wire rack until room temperature. While cooling, prepare the frosting.
For the Frosting:
- In your stand mixer, add butter and salt at medium low speed.
- Next turn the mixer down to low and slowly add confectioner’s sugar in small portions until all is added then turn the speed to medium high to combine.
- Add lemonade and lemon extract and mix until nice and fluffy. Add in food coloring at this point if desired.
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As someone that loves pink lemonade, I never thought there would be a cake that highlights this flavor! Well done – this is one of my favorite desserts now!
How gorgeous and beautiful this cake is. Pinned to try this soon. Thanks for sharing.
What a fun cake ! I cant wait to try it our for Mother’s Day!
I have a guava nectar concentrate in the freezer….u think it would work in place of the lemonade concentrate in this recipe?
One of my go-to cake recipes! I really love that it uses butter instead of oil. My cake did take about 45 minutes total to bake. I tested it at 2 minute increments after the 35 minutes. It was raining out and I discovered a few windows open after baking so I think that contributed as well as I used lemon juice in place of the extract because I didn’t have any.
This is the best cake! Just the right amount of sweet and tart. It’s not a cake that is common to my area so when I make it people rave and say they have never heard of a pink lemonade cake. And they love it too, of course.
I made this cake for my granddaughter’s birthday. It was a big hit. Delicious. I reduced the sugar to 1cup though because of the sugar in the canned pink lemonade. It was not to sweet but just right.
Thanks for the recipe.
The tip on how to keep a cake fresh after cooking is brilliant!
Has anyone had success baking this recipes as cupcakes? Also, about how many cupcakes would it yield.. thoughts?
Hi Jocelyn, I wanted to know if I can use country time pink lemonade or simply strawberry lemonade in replace of frozen concentrated pink lemonade. I ran everywhere trying to find frozen concentrated pink lemonade. But everywhere was sold out or didn’t carry it. Please let me know thanks.