Lemon Cake Mix Cookies
on Sep 08, 2020, Updated Jul 01, 2025
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Today I’m showing you how to make lemon cookies from cake mix. These lemon cake mix cookies are another easy recipe to get your kids in the kitchen. These are one of our favorite ways to use lemons and are sure to be the easiest cookie recipes you will ever make.
Of course, I’ll always use any excuse to make delicious desserts as good as these delicious cookies! And I love all things lemon.
✅ Recipe Summary: Lemon Cake Mix Cookies 🍋
🕒 Ready in: About 20 minutes
🍪 Yields: ~4 dozen cookies
👨🍳 Skill Level: Beginner-friendly
📦 Equipment: Mixing bowl, electric mixer, baking sheet, parchment paper
🍋 These lemon cake mix cookies are soft, chewy, and bursting with citrusy flavor—all made from just 5 simple ingredients including a box of lemon cake mix and fresh lemon juice or extract.
🥣 Just mix the dough, roll in powdered sugar, and bake until lightly golden. No chilling required unless you want neater edges!
🧺 Perfect for bake sales, school lunches, potlucks, or any time you’re craving something bright, sunny, and sweet.
💡 Pro Tips: Chill the dough before baking for thicker cookies, use a medium cookie scoop for even sizes, and top with lemon zest for extra zing.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love Lemon Cake Mix Cookies
I grew up on great homemade cookie recipes. Classic cookie recipes like pecan pie cookies, forgotten cookies, and of course amazing chocolate chip cookies!
These easy lemon cake mix cookies look and taste just like the Duncan Hines lemon cookies your grandmother made. There is a good reason for this: This probably is your grandma’s recipe!
These easy lemon cookies are ready to dunk in 20 minutes. It’s no wonder they are one of my favorite easy cookie recipes that I grew up with.
Ingredients and Notes
(Full recipe at the end of the post)
One thing that makes this recipe so great is the ingredient list. Or, how small it is. There are only five simple ingredients!
- 1 Box of Lemon Cake Mix – Any brand of boxed cake mix will work for this recipe. My go-to brand is Duncan Hines lemon cake mix. It’s consistently good and always easy to find.
- Eggs – Use large to medium-size eggs, and remember: Organic cage-free eggs are always best. Even better is to buy your eggs from someone who has chickens!
- Lemon Juice – Squeeze your own, if possible for that fresh lemon flavor. You only need one lemon for this recipe. Garnish these with fresh lemon zest for extra flavor and flare after they cool!
How to Make Duncan Hines Lemon Cake Mix Cookies
(Full recipe at the end of the post)
As always, make sure you have everything you need. New to baking? Learn how to make cookies from our in-house professional chef, CIA-trained Chef Kat.
Here are a few things you’ll want handy for making this lemon cookie recipe:
- Mixing bowl
- Parchment paper-lined baking sheet
- Electric mixer
If you can plan ahead an hour or two, let the eggs come to room temperature before using them. This will help the cookies to bake more evenly.
Pro Baking Tip: How to bring eggs to room temperature quickly.
- Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl except the powdered sugar.
- Make the cookie dough balls and roll each in powdered sugar.
- Place them on a parchment paper-lined baking tray.
- Bake at 375° for about 10 minutes until the bottoms are lightly brown.
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Expert Baking Tips
Chill the bowl of dough for at least 30 minutes before baking. (Be sure to cover it in plastic wrap.) Chilled dough is easier to work with and will help keep the cookies from spreading too far while baking.
A medium cookie scoop is a great way to form even balls of cookie dough. This helps to make them all the same size. If you want smaller ones, a small cookie scoop with does the same thing!
Line your baking sheet with parchment paper to make clean-up time easy and fast.
More Favorite Lemon Desserts
Recipe Questions and Answers
Use a white, lemon-flavored box of cake mix to make these.
You can use 1 teaspoon of lemon extract.
You can make the dough ahead of time and freeze until ready to use. Roll each cookie portion in the powdered sugar after thawing.
These are one of our favorite ways to use lemons and are sure to be the easiest cookie recipes you will ever make.
Of course, I’ll always use any excuse to make delicious desserts as good as these delicious cookies! And I love all things lemon.
These lemon cake mix cookies are perfect for bake sales, birthday parties, work parties, and so much more! If you love cake mix cookie recipes, be sure and take a look at our Stuffed Peppermint Patti Cookies!
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Lemon Cake Mix Cookies
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Ingredients
- 1 box Lemon cake mix
- 2 Eggs
- 1/3 cup Vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice, (or 1 teaspoon lemon extract)
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375° and allow your eggs to come to room temperature.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, oil, lemon juice (or extract), and cake mix, and stir it all together until well blended.
- Drop teaspoons full of dough in powdered sugar and form into cookie balls. Roll until lightly covered. Once sugared put on an ungreased cookie sheet ( You can use parchment paper on a cookie sheet).
- Bake for about 10 until bottoms are lightly browned. (My oven takes 12 mins)then move to a cooling rack.
Notes
- You can use 1 teaspoon of lemon zest if you don’t have fresh lemon juice.
- Rolling in powdered sugar is optional.
- Top with fresh lemon zest after they come out of the oven for extra flavor.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This recipe has been updated from the original post of September 8, 2020.
Oh my these are absolutely divine! SOOOO easy and full of lemony flavor. Chewy, pretty, easy and scrumptious. I will be making these a lot! tytytytytytytytytytytytytyty
😊 I’m so thrilled that you loved these lemon cookies and found them as easy as they are delicious. The bright, chewy texture and that burst of lemony flavor really make them a favorite.
It sounds like they’ll be on repeat in your kitchen, and I couldn’t be happier about that! If you ever want to mix it up, try adding a little white chocolate drizzle or a sprinkle of lemon zest on top for even more citrusy goodness.
Happy baking, and TYTYTYTY right back at you! 🍋🍪✨
We add honey roasted cashews and sometimes dried tart cherries instead of rolling in powder sugar we dust them after they cool
Thank you for sharing your twist on the recipe! Honey-roasted cashews and dried tart cherries sound like amazing additions—what a great way to add extra flavor and texture. Dusting with powdered sugar after cooling is such a smart tip too. I love hearing how you’ve made the recipe your own!
Are you sure this recipe only has 10 carbs?
Hi Jane. Thanks for this question. We use an automated nutrition analysis and when I got your question, I looked up the carb composition of all the ingredients. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the carbs in one of these cookies is only 8.6 gms! Of course, if you’re the average American, you’ll probably want to have 2 or 3 of these delicious cookies, which will bring the carbs count up proportionately. Thanks again for keeping us honest and most of all for reading Platter Talk!
I don’t understand this part of the notes. I think you meant lemon zest instead?
Thanks, Tracie! We corrected that.
I was pleasantly surprised by how marvelous these Lemon Cake Cookies are! Used a couple of extra -dashes of lemon extract, to the recipe. Wonderful!!!! Thank you.
Linda Lou – (I love you name.) Thanks for taking the time to leave your kind comment. We’re happy that these turned out for you, they’re practically no-fail cookies!
Looking for a fast lemon dessert idea to take into work with me the following morning, I came across this gem. I had never ventured into lemon dessert items for whatever reason, but these needed to be quality assured by someone before I took them to others – and I was the only one available to do so. I have made this recipe countless times now as it is a favorite of family and friends alike. Oh! I am a loyal fan of these amazing cookies!
Thanks for the awesome comments, Janelle!
Have made these, always enjoyed!
Even include them on my Christmas cookie trays❣️
I haven’t made these yet but will! I love lemon desserts but nobody else in my family does (quite as much). These seem easy and yummy!
Easy good cookies
JANIS