By: Jill Mills Updated: Oct 16, 2024

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These Lemon Cake Mix Cookies are super soft, chewy, and made with just 6 ingredients! Every bite is bursting with tart lemon flavor.

A stack of lemon cake mix cookies, the top one with a bite missing

We just love lemon desserts! These lemon cake mix cookies, inspired by my lemon sugar cookies, are one of our favorites. It’s amazing what you can turn a basic cake mix into with just a few extra ingredients. Also similar to our lemon crinkle cookies, but with cream cheese.

Why You’ll Love These Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

Here are a few reasons why these cookies are one of our favorites.

SO easy! Starting with a lemon cake mix helps keep the ingredients list AND prep time minimal. The dough is so simple to prepare!
Soft & chewy. These cookies are on the thick side and don’t spread too much in the oven (since we chill the dough first!), resulting in a perfectly chewy texture.
Tart lemon flavor. Every bite of these cookies is filled with tart lemon flavor, thanks to the cake mix and lemon extract.

If you also love lemon desserts, be sure to check out some of our other favorites, like lemon cupcakes, lemon cheesecake, and lemon tiramisu!

Ingredients needed to make lemon cake mix cookies

Recipe Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need for these simple cake mix cookies. Scroll down to the recipe card below for measurements.

Lemon cake mix – The lemon cake mix I used was Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist Lemon Supreme cake. It was just right for this recipe, but any regular-size box of lemon cake mix would do well.
Butter – I used regular salted butter.
Cream cheese – Cream cheese adds a tang that pairs so well with the lemon, in addition to making these cookies moist and chewy.
Egg
Lemon flavor extract – Lemon extract adds a more intense lemon flavor than lemon juice or zest so it’s perfect for this easy recipe.
Powdered sugar – You’ll roll the cookie dough balls in the powdered sugar before baking, but you can also dust the cookies after they’re baked with more if you’d like.

How to Make Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

It takes just a few minutes to make these lemon cookies from cake mix, though the dough does need to chill for 30 minutes. You can find the printable version of the instructions in the recipe card below.

Cream cheese, butter, and egg in a mixing bowl

Cake mix added to the cream cheese mixture

Make the dough. Beat the butter, cream cheese, egg, and lemon until smooth. Mix in the cake mix.
Chill. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Form the cookies. Form the chilled dough into 1-inch balls. Roll them in powdered sugar then place on greased cookie sheets two inches apart.
Bake. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes then transfer to wire racks. Dust with more powdered sugar if desired.

Lemon cake mix cookies on a cooling rack

Tips for Making Cake Mix Cookies

Here are a few tips to help you make perfect cooking using lemon cake mix.

Chill the dough. For these cookies, chilling the dough is an essential step to creating thick, chewy cookies. Baking them immediately will cause them to spread too much in the oven.
Add yellow food coloring. The color of the lemon cake mix cookies will be a very pale yellow. To bump up the color, add a few drops of yellow food coloring to the cookie dough batter. I added food coloring when mixing the butter and cream cheese.
Avoid overbaking. These cookies should be set on the outside but may appear a bit puffy or soft in the middle. That’s okay, they’ll continue to cook as they cool. Overbaking will lead to tough, dry cookies!
Dust with powdered sugar. The powdered sugar gives the cookies a nice crackly appearance and the sweetness also helps to balance the tart lemon. I like to dust the cookies with a bit more sugar when they’re just out of the oven.
Variation. Add white chocolate chips to the mix or top with a lemon glaze.

Proper Storage

Counter. Lemon cake mix cookies will last for up to a week when stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Freezer. You can also freeze these cookies for up to 3 months. Once they’ve cooled, just transfer them to a freezer-safe container. Thaw on the counter before enjoying.

5 from 19 votes