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dessert recipes
March 13, 2019

Heavenly lemon cookies (fast, easy + oh so good!)

In today’s post: These heavenly lemon cookies are just that – heavenly! They’re soft, lemony, and delicious, and only take a few minutes to whip up.

I’ve never been a huge fan of lemon desserts. It’s not that I dislike them, I just don’t usually eat them. I mean, why eat lemon bars if you can eat chocolate ice cream instead? And so for most of my life I’ve gone my merry chocolatey way, avoiding lemon desserts simply because they’re not chocolate.

But I started to wonder if I was missing something. After all, lots of people seem to really like lemony desserts. In the interest of being an equal opportunity dessert-ist I decided to pull my only lemon recipe out of the archives and give it another try (along with new photos). Turns out these heavenly lemon cookies really are heavenly!

Lemon cake mix cookies on a plate

Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

So technically these are lemon cake mix cookies. I usually prefer baking from scratch, but let me tell you about my love for cake mixes. I don’t know what kind of witchcraft goes into them, but they consistently turn out moist and light with a minimum amount of effort. I really love cake mix cookies, because they are super fast to mix up and they stay soft for days!

Hand holding a lemon cookie dusted with powdered sugar

These cake mix cookies are especially soft because they have cream cheese mixed in, which gives them a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Check it out:

Hand holding a lemon cake mix cookie broken in half

That’s good stuff right there. And if you want to take these lemon cake mix cookies over the top, you can dunk or drizzle them with a simple vanilla glaze.

Lemon cookies on a cooking rack, some with glaze

 

Lemon Cookies Recipe

These lemon cookies taste like heaven! They're super soft and super easy to make with just 5 ingredients. Lemon cake mix cookies.
Print Recipe

Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

These heavenly lemon cookies are just that - heavenly! They're soft, lemony, and delicious, and only take a few minutes to whip up.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time20 mins
Course: Dessert
Keyword: Cookies
Servings: 30 cookies

Ingredients

Cookies

  • 1 Lemon Cake Mix
  • 8 oz Cream Cheese
  • 1/2 cup Butter
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Glaze

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Cookies

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Soften cream cheese and butter. Mix cake mix, cream cheese, egg, and vanilla together until butter and cream cheese and butter are fully incorporated. Dough will be quite thick and sticky.
  • Scoop 1.5 tablespoons of dough (size of a medium cookie scoop) and roll into balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar and place onto lightly greased cookies.
  • Bake nine to ten until cookies are just puffed and cracked but still soft. Cool completely before glazing or serving.

Glaze

  • Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan, then turn off heat. Whisk in powdered sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of milk (if piping on glaze) or 3 tablespoons (if dunking cookies to completely glaze the tops)

 

How to make lemon cookies

To begin making your lemon cake mix cookies, make sure that you soften – but do not melt – the butter and cream cheese. If you melt the butter you will need to chill the dough before you bake the cookies, which is lame. Who wants to wait for that? So soften the butter just enough to cream it together with the cream cheese. Then add in the egg, lemon cake mix, and vanilla (if you want your cookies to burst with lemon flavor you can use lemon extract instead of the vanilla).

Lemon cake mix, egg, butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar

Scoop out 1.5 tablespoons of dough and gently roll it into a ball with your hands. The dough is thick and sticky, so it’s much easier to do this using a cookie dough scoop. Handle the ball of dough very gently to roll it once or twice, then drop it into a bowl of powdered sugar and roll to coat. Then you can place the balls on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Lemon cookie dough balls rolled in powdered sugar on a cookie sheet; baked lemon cookies

Bake at 350 degrees until the cookies are puffed and the tops are cracked (as seen above). This takes exactly 10 minutes in my oven, but it may be a minute more or less in yours. They should still be very soft when you take them out – too soft to remove from the cookie sheet right away. Let them cool 10 minutes or so before carefully removing to a cooling rack, where you’ll want to let them cool completely before eating. This gives them time to set up a little and get melt-in-your-mouth-ish.

Lemon cake mix cookies on a plate

At this point you can decide whether to sprinkle them with a bit more powdered sugar and eat as-is, or top with the glaze. The cookies are soft enough that dunking them in the glaze can be a bit difficult, so I prefer to put the glaze in a ziplock bag, snip off a corner and “pipe” the glaze onto the cookies.

Lemon Cookies FAQs

What brand of cake mix do you use in lemon cake mix cookies? I’ve tried this recipe with a variety of cake mix brands, and I prefer Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. Any brand of cake mix should work; you just may get slightly different “puffiness” results. I live at high altitude, and cookies made with the Betty Crocker cake mix seem to spread less than other brands.

Why are my lemon cookies flat? If your cookies spread too much and go flat, there are a few things you can try to keep them nice and puffy. First, make sure not to melt the butter – just soften it enough that you can cream it with a mixer. If that’s not the problem, you can also chill your dough for an hour before rolling into balls. Alternately, you can try adding 2 tablespoons of flour to the cake mix.

How long do the lemon cookies stay fresh? Cookies usually don’t last long at our house, but I have noticed that cake mix cookies stay fresh for at least a couple of days, and stay softer longer than other cookies made from scratch.

How should I store lemon cookies? Once the cookies are completely cooled, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. For storing longer than a few days, place them in an airtight container and freeze.

Can I use this recipe with other flavors of cake mix? Absolutely!

Do you have more cake mix cookie recipes? Yep! Two of my favorites are mint chocolate gooey cookies and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, both of which are made with a cake mix.

 

Want more cookie recipes? Try these:

Never flat chocolate chip cookies

Mom’s sugar cookies + the best sugar cookie cream cheese frosting

Chocolate mint truffle gooey cookies

Easy double chocolate cake mix cookies

Super soft lemon cake mix cookies

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Home » recipes » dessert » Heavenly lemon cookies (fast, easy + oh so good!)


13 Comments

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Comments

  1. Sara says

    February 20, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    I’ve been waiting for this recipe 😉 They were soo delicious!

    Reply
  2. ROxannE says

    March 20, 2016 at 3:41 pm

    I’d love to make these for Easter next Sunday, but I want to make them a day in advance. If I make them on Saturday, should they be refrigerated?

    Reply
    • autumn says

      March 20, 2016 at 6:07 pm

      They don’t need to be refrigerated – it might help keep them a little fresher, but I just leave them out on the counter!

      Reply
  3. Leisel says

    April 27, 2016 at 7:53 pm

    These are Ah.May.Zing! love, love, love them! The frosting is the best I have ever tasted and the cookies! YUM! I only let my kids have 2, but I think I ate a whole tray by myself! ;0) Thank you for your cute blog!

    Reply
  4. Suzanne says

    February 3, 2020 at 1:13 pm

    These look so good! I love to incorporate lemon whenever I can in the springtime!

    Reply
  5. Vanessa says

    February 3, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?

    Reply
  6. Susan says

    May 13, 2020 at 9:56 pm

    Do you have any recipes for cookies or bars using angel food cake mix?

    Reply
    • autumn says

      May 14, 2020 at 12:13 pm

      I haven’t tried that yet, but it’s a great idea!

      Reply
  7. Amy says

    May 14, 2020 at 9:26 am

    what can we substitute for Cream Cheese? (Can’t eat dairy except butter)

    Reply
    • autumn says

      May 14, 2020 at 12:12 pm

      Hi Amy – you can make these without the cream cheese. Use 2 eggs and 1/2 cup softened butter. They won’t be quite as rich and may flatten a bit more, but they will still taste good!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 75 Lemon Dessert Recipes says:
    May 25, 2015 at 12:47 pm

    […] Heavenly Lemon Cookies  |  It’s Always Autumn […]

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  2. Cookie Craziness-50 Best Cookie Recipes - Crazy Little Projects says:
    August 20, 2015 at 12:58 pm

    […] 26. Glazed Lemon Cookies […]

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  3. ‘lemon glazed’ palette | Concepts and Colorways says:
    February 18, 2016 at 10:50 am

    […] Photograph by It’s Always Autumn […]

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I'm Autumn, a mom of five who loves ice cream, Masterpiece Theatre, and clothes that hide the fact that I eat so much ice cream. When I was 18 I got a job at a craft store and told everyone (regularly) how much I hated crafts. Well, things change! Read More…

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