Duncan Hines lemon bundt cake comes out moist and tender with boxed cake mix! An easy pudding cake you can serve for breakfast or dessert with a simple glaze.
Lemon bundt cake is one of many great cake mix recipes we have shared on our site. This one is different with a box of pudding mix inside to make it extremely moist. If you have never thought outside of the box (literally) to tweak the ingredients on the back you’re missing out. (affiliate links present)
Lemon Cake with Pudding
A great cake mix hack I tell you. Yes you can make it as directed on the back but we have done so much more than that. With some fresh fruit juice, lemon zest and even an extra egg can transform good to OMG delish. You are going to want to start out with Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker lemon cake mix to enhance the overall flavor.
You do not need to use this type of fluted pan, but the cook time below will reflect as such. I think you really can transform an average looking dessert into something beautiful just with a pan like this. If you don’t have one on hand you can read about how long does it take to bake a cake of all shapes and sizes here.
Lemon Bundt Cake With Cake Mix
What is a bundt cake anyway right? Well it is just a round shape with a hole in the center. If this is new to you I just love it. Not only is it so pretty when served but because of the shape it doesn’t take quite as long to bake vs. 9×13″ sizing. This mixture would fit either one though really. As far as anything served on top that is optional as well.
The simplest cake glaze is just a cup of powdered sugar with enough milk whisked in it to become the texture you want. Less for thicker and more for thinner, obviously. You can make a homemade cream cheese or vanilla frosting, top with ice cream or just enjoy it as is.
If you wanted a quicker bake you certainly can use this same batter to make in a muffin pan!! This is how long to bake mini cupcakes which little ones just love. Small enough to pop right into your mouth, a cross between muffins and cupcakes I suppose.
Cake Mix Lemon Bundt Cake
Lemon mix for the cake is best by far for this one but once you get the hang of this you could tweak with other flavors of dry mix and pudding. I mean think about it. Use yellow cake mix with banana pudding and the other ingredients below to make that for a banana pudding cake treat another night!
- Cake mix
- 1 box instant pudding lemon, 3.4 oz is the best way to enhance it, sour cream (same oz) could be substituted if need be
- 4 eggs
- Water
- 3/4 c vegetable oil
- Adding lemon zest gives it another punch of citrus
Yes! We will show you how to make an easy lemon bundt cake out of cake mix here. The best cake hack you need to know! Adding a box of pudding mix will make our cake mix lemon bundt cake so moist and tender, pretty too in a fluted pan.
There is not. You can use any flavor or brand of boxed cake mix to make a bundt shape in about 40 minutes. A pretty way to bake a cake that can be frosted or with a glaze poured over the top.
Make the batter as directed on the back of your boxed cake mix, or use our cake mix hack. This is enough to fill a bundt pan 3/4 of the way full which will rise and fill it completely when done.
Lemon Cake in Bundt Pan
This is a 12 cup bundt pan which is almost always what you will find in the store or online. Timing is appropriate for that size. If you wanted to make mini bundt cakes we have timing for that in this post as well. Those are fun for individual servings without any slicing required.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together lemon cake mix and lemon pudding mix.
- Add eggs, water and vegetable oil. Mix well until you have a smooth texture.
- Fold in 1 tsp lemon zest.
- Pour the batter into a bundt pan sprayed with non stick spray (mine was a 10.5 inch pan).
- Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out with moist crumbs attached.
- Remove and let cool before putting a large plate or platter on top and gently flipping it over to fall out. Top with powdered sugar if desired.
Now for plating your cooled cake; First off you want to allow it to cool on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes after removing from the oven first. Room temperature works too if you prefer to cool completely first. This is quick and easy but you’ll need to prepare it first for it to be so.
How to Get a Cake Out of a Bundt Pan
Whether you make this with dry box mix or our homemade lemon meringue strawberry shortcake in the same round pan you’ll need these tips.
Time needed: 5 minutes
How Do You Flip a Bundt Cake
- Prepare
To begin with you want to make sure before you pour your batter in initially that it has been sprayed with non stick spray inside.
- Set
Once cooled for a bit you want to use a large plate, larger than the opening of the bundt pan itself to place on top. If you don’t have that you can use a cutting board. Place that on top of the opening.
- Flip
With both of your hands hold both the plate and the pan together tight at 3 and 9 (positions on a clock) Now flip the bottom to the top and gently set the plate (which is now on the bottom) on the counter.
- Lift
Typically I will then grab both sides again and lift up and down once to make sure it has fallen out of the pan. Then gently lift the bundt pan off and you can drizzle lemon glaze or frosting on the now top of the cake.
Lemon Pudding Cake
Now for the lemon bundt cake recipe we have been talking about. All you need is a bowl and if you have a stand or hand mixer to use at medium speed that i shandy to bring out. To further enhance the lemon flavor you could add 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice into the batter and/or in the easy lemon glaze with powdered sugar and milk.
Or make our homemade frosting used on our lemon curd cake here that is out of this world. Now jump to recipe and let us know what y’all think!
Duncan Hines Lemon Bundt Cake
Equipment
- 1 bundt pan
Ingredients
- 1 box cake mix, lemon
- 1 box instant pudding, lemon, 3.4 oz
- 4 eggs
- 1 c water
- 3/4 c vegetable oil
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- powdered sugar, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together lemon cake mix and lemon pudding mix. Add eggs, water and vegetable oil. Mix well until you have a smooth texture.
- Fold in 1 tsp lemon zest. Pour the batter into a bundt pan sprayed with non stick spray (mine was a 10.5 inch pan). Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out with moist crumbs attached.
- Remove and let cool before putting a large plate or platter on top and gently flipping it over to fall out. Top with powdered sugar if desired.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I only have butter will that work for a substitute for the veg oil if I melt it and cool it completely?
haven’t tried that but imagine if cooled but still liquid it would work
Could you use lemon juice instead of lemon zest I’ve already squeezed all of my lemons
could give it a whirl
I have a box of lemon cake mix, but a 5.1 Oz pack of instant pudding? Can I use it insteD of the smaller pudding?
I haven’t used more than stated so I don’t know if it would make enough of a difference to cut it down to less.
Want your recipe for lemon box Bundt cake
Recipe is at bottom
Can this be divided and baked into two loaf pans?
yes but unsure of the bake time on that, until the toothpick came out mostly clean with some moist crumbs attached is ideal
Can I replace the oil by apple sauce?
Yes that is a 1:1 replacement option. Just note that the cake will be more dense this way.
Looked high and low for this recipe and nutrition information. Thank you so much for posting!
Can I use a vanilla or yellow cake mix in place of the lemon cake mix for this bundt cake?
yes, it just wouldn’t be lemon flavored as much then
Can you use jello instead of pudding?
Those are totally different, no
If pudding is already in the mix should you still add another box of pudding along with the extra egg or will that be too much pudding?
I only add the one
what would happen if I would add cook and serve pudding@The Typical Mom,
I haven’t done that and it is made different so the results would be different