Soft and Simple Lemon Cookies are a favorite with everyone. The butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar in this Lemon Cake Mix Cookie make them totally melt in your mouth!
Of all the lemon cookie recipes on the site, this one is definitely the most simple! We also like the cake mix version with frosting, and the lemon sugar cookie recipe. All are delicious in different ways!
melt in your mouth Cookies
Remember how I’m a lemon convert?!
I haven’t always loved lemon-y treats, but I’m obsessed these days and thought it would be fun to try a Lemon version of our Gooey Butter Cookies and make some delicious Lemon Cake Mix Cookies.
Knowing just how much we love our Gooey Cookies, we were sure a lemon version would be amazing. It also helps that this cookie recipe is simple and so soft. The cream cheese and butter in the recipe make them so irresistible as well as make them so good, they melt in your mouth.
How to make lemon cake mix cookies
I don’t always have lemon cake mix on hand, which is the main ingredient, but all the remaining ingredients are simple – butter, cream cheese, egg, lemon extract and powdered sugar. Because we have been making these more, though, I’ve been sure to grab a few lemon cake boxes each month, especially because we’re also obsessed with this Lemon Sheet Cake that uses them.
Other than chilling the dough for these cookies for half hour, these cookies can be made quickly, and with the help of the kiddos.
DOUGH. Beat butter, lemon extract, egg, and cream cheese until fluffy, using a hand mixer. Add in cake mix and beat until smooth.
REFRIGERATE. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.
POWDERED SUGAR. Add ½ cup powdered sugar to a small bowl. Roll dough into 1/2-1 inch balls and dip in powdered sugar. Placed on greased cookie sheet.
BAKE. Bake for 12 – 13 minutes. Sift with powdered sugar if desired. ENJOY!
Additions: If you’re feeling extra fancy, you can add white chocolate chips to the dough, top with toasted coconut, or even drizzle a powdered sugar/lemon glaze on top of your baked cookies.
STORING AND FREEZING
How do I store baked cookies?
- Counter: Once the cookies have cooled Place them in an airtight container. Cookies will keep for several days. To help keep them from getting stale put a slice of fresh bread in the container as well.
- Freezer: Once the cookies has cooled place them in an airtight container. Put parchment or wax paper between each layer. Freeze for 4-6 months.
Can I freeze cake mix cookie dough? Yes! You can easily freeze the dough to bake later. Place dough balls on a cookie sheet to flash freeze them. Freeze for about 2 hours or until the outside has become frozen. Place balls in an airtight freezer safe container. Safely freeze for 4-6 months.
To Bake: remove the desired number of dough balls. Allow to thaw on a cookie sheet and bake according to recipe.
These cookies really are so soft and melt in your mouth. They have just enough lemon to appeal to all those obsessed with lemon treats, but not so lemon-y that they are too tart.
For more cake mix cookies, check out:
- Funfetti Cookies
- Gooey Butter Cookies
- Cake Mix Cookie Bars
- Gooey Rolo Cookies
- Cake Mix Snickerdoodles
More Lemon Treats
Lemon Cake Mix Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Lemon Cake Box Mix
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 egg
- powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- With a hand mixer, beat butter, lemon extract, egg, and cream cheese until fluffy. Add in cake mix and beat until smooth.
- Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.
- Add ½ cup powdered sugar to a small bowl. Roll dough into 1/2-1 inch balls and dip in powdered sugar. Placed on greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 12 - 13 minutes. Sift with powdered sugar if desired. ENJOY!
This recipe is… average at best. I added extra lemon juice and zest and they still had no flavor. The result is cakey and crumbly, not soft and chewy!
Thank you for trying them!
Best cookies ever! I am NoT a cookie maker but these are super easy and delicious!
Yay! That makes me so happy to hear! Glad you tried them. Thank you!
I love the ease of these cookies! Not to mention how good they are!
I took these to a whole new level today by adding diced frozen strawberries.
Perfect! That would be so good! Thank you for sharing that!
Is there a substitute for lemon extract
You can substitute lemon juice for lemon extract. 1 tablespoon of lemon juice equals 1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract. You can also use orange juice if you don’t have lemon juice on hand. Hope this helps!
Super easy and very soft and moist! I subbed a white cake mix as I didn’t have lemon on hand and upped the lemon extract to 2 1/2 tsps. And I didn’t chill for 30 minutes as I was pressed for time. Will be making these again. Thank you for sharing!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for sharing what you do! 🙂
These cookies are like eating air! Light and moist! Perfect tea cookies.
I’m so happy you like them! Thanks for sharing!
Just made these, and our family loves them! 💛
Yay! So glad to hear the cookies were a hit!
Did you flatten them slightly before baking? Mine were very tasty but didn’t look as good as yours. Mine were still a half ball but good.
I do flatten them slightly by using the bottom of a drinking glass and pressing down on the dough ball very lightly to flatten it out just a bit. Hope this helps!
Great recipes but how can I print “magic custard cake” recipes?
I was thinking for making these cookies cause they sound so yummy. But I was wondering if I could add some raspberry and make them into raspberry lemonade cookies? Do you have any suggestions on how much I should add and what I should use?
I haven’t tried adding raspberries to this cake mix cookie recipe but if you do try it out I would suggest using frozen raspberries instead of fresh because they hold up better in the batter and tend to look more pretty coming out of the oven. The fresh raspberries usually create a mess in the batter and they don’t turn out looking as good. As far as taste goes – they taste the same. I would add however many raspberries you think looks like a good ratio of “batter to berry”. Hope this helps!
When short on time these cake mix cookies are the thing.
I do roll my cookies first into white granulated sugar and then roll in powdered sugar before baking.
Love it! The more sugar the better! 🙂
I’ve made these twice and they are really delicious. I was wondering if this same recipe could be used for chocolate chip cookies but just use yellow cake mix, vanilla extract, and add chocolate chips🤔 Do you think it’s possible?
Absolutely! We actually have that very recipe on our site. We call the our Gooey Butter Cookies. And you could totally add chocolate chips to these. https://lilluna.com/recipe-tip-of-the-week-gooey-butter-cookies/. Another great cake mix/chocolate chip cookie mash up are our Cake Mix Cookie Bars: https://lilluna.com/cake-mix-cookie-bars/ These have m&m’s and chocolate chips but you could just use chocolate chips if you’d prefer.
Awesome sauce! I’ll give these a try. Thanks so much!!
Can you use this recipe to make snickerdoodles bu changing the lemon cake mix and extract to vanilla and using granulated sugar and cinnamon instead of powdered sugar?
Absolutely!! That sounds delicious and such a fun twist on the recipe!
I’m not a huge lemon fan, but my husband is. These made me change my mind. So good!