Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

These one-bowl Lemon Cake Mix Cookies are soft, chewy, and packed with bright lemon flavor thanks to a few simple upgrades to a box mix. They come together in minutes and can be enjoyed as is or topped with frosting and sprinkles!

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why this recipe works
• 🗒 Ingredients
• 🍋 Recipe tips
• ⏲️ How to store
• 🎉 Variations on recipe
• 🍪 More box mix cookies recipes
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Can we get a shoutout for lemon desserts? They are the unsing heroes of the dessert table.

And I get it; I'm almost always a chocolate dessert person myself. But sometimes lemon just hits. And for whatever reason, lemon works especially well in cookie form.

These soft lemon cookies are one of my very favorite cookie recipes. But I decided I wanted to make an even easier lemon cookie that would come out perfectly every time.

Enter lemon cake mix.

❤️ Why this recipe works

Cake mix makes these easy: using a box of lemon cake mix makes these cookies incredibly simple to make. The mix already contains flour, sugar, leavening, and lemon flavoring, so you can cut out a few typical cookie ingredients right away.

Uses butter and oil: though cake mix recipes usually just call for vegetable oil, these cookies call for both oil and butter to add rich flavor, as well as moistness for extra soft cookies.

No special equipment needed: this is a one-bowl recipe and doesn't require a stand mixer or even a hand mixer. This makes it easy for anyone to make and super easy to clean up when you're done baking!

Option to make the cookies even lemonier: I like to add additional fresh lemon juice and zest to my cookies. You can omit if you don't have any fresh lemons on hand.

Option to coat in confectioners's sugar: rolling the dough in powdered sugar helps give the cookies a bit of a crinkly exterior and a little extra sweetness that works well with the tart lemon. But you are welcome to skip this step, too.

🗒 Ingredients

Here's everything you need to make these lemon cake mix cookies (and a few optional ingredients, too!), but be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions:

• Box lemon cake mix: I show you how to make these cookies with either a 15.25 oz box or a 13.25 oz box
• Salt
• Unsalted butter
• Large egg
• Vegetable or canola oil
• Freshly squeezed lemon juice: optional for flavor boost
• Fresh lemon zest: optional for flavor boost
• Confectioners' sugar optional: for rolling

🍋 Recipe tips

• You can skip adding the fresh lemon juice and zest to the cookie dough if you don't have any on hand, but it really does take the flavor of these cookies from good to great! You could add ½ teaspoon lemon extract instead. Or if you don't have either, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.

• As always, take care not to over-mix the cookie dough. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until they're just combined, otherwise, you run the risk of getting tough cookies instead of soft and chewy.

• I like to use a #40 cookie scoop to portion my dough into balls. You can also just estimate dough amount. The dough balls should be about 2 Tbsp.

• You can roll the dough balls in powdered sugar to give them a crinkle cookie effect and a little more sweetness if you want.

• The confectioners' sugar doesn't stick to the cookies quite as well as it does with my other lemon cookies recipe. This is likely because these ones have a bit more oil/butter in them. For better sticking, roll the dough in granulated sugar first, followed by powdered sugar.

• Keep your eye on the cookies in the oven and take them out when the edges are just set and the centers are still a little bit soft.

• Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

• You can eat the cookies as is or you can frost them! Make your own buttercream frosting or use a simple store-bought frosting. I went with vanilla here, but I've also topped them with lemon frosting. Both are delicious! Cinnamon buttercream would be yummy, too.

• And add the sprinkles of your choice to fit any occasion, of course!

The lemon cake mix cookies are so simple and so delicious. They have the perfect cookie texture and nobody will guess you used a box of cake mix to make them!

⏲️ How to store

I recommend storing these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. When stored properly, they should keep fresh for about 4 days.

If you're stacking the cookies, I recommend placing a piece of parchment or wax paper in between each layer so the frosting doesn't stick.

🎉 Variations on recipe

One of the best parts of this recipe is how easy it is to make! But I also have a few simple changes/additions you can make that could potentially make these cookies even more delicious.

Here are some ideas:

• Add white chocolate chips
• Add sprinkles into the cookie dough
• Add fresh or dried blueberries
• Add freeze-dried strawberries
• Add a little lavender syrup or lavender powder.
• Add shredded coconut
• Add poppy seeds
• Top cookies with a cream cheese frosting
• Top cookies with an easy lemon glaze
• Turn them into sandwich cookies with vanilla frosting or strawberry fluff in the middle

🍪 More box mix cookies recipes

I love taking boxes of cake mix, muffin mix, pancake mix, etc. and seeing what I can make with them! I have lots of boxed mix recipes on my website, but here are some of my favorite box mix cookie recipes:

Of course, I have tons of lemon recipes, too, with these lemon cookie dough bars being all-time favorites!

You can make cookies with any flavor of cake mix, but each recipe will have its own special touches, like the fresh lemon juice in this one.

What cake mix recipe would you like to see next?

📖 Recipe