Copycat Olive Garden Lemon Cream Cake

A slice of cake being taken out of the whole cake.

5 from 4 votes

Copycat Olive Garden Lemon Cream Cake

This Copycat Olive Garden Lemon Cream Cake is easy, delicious, and so refreshing. It's one of our favorite desserts, and making the entire cake costs less than a single slice at Olive Garden!

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Cooling and Chilling Time3

Total Time4 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: cake, lemon

Servings: people

Calories: 513kcal

Author: Recipe adapted from Todd Wilbur’s Top Secret Recipes

Cost: $5.79

Equipment

Liquid measuring cup
measuring cups
Measuring spoons
mixing bowl
whisk
wire rack
small mixing bowl
handheld mixer
icing spatula

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:

16.25 oz box white or yellow cake mix
1 ¼ cup water
⅓ cup vegetable oil
3 large egg whites

CRUMB TOPPING:

¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons butter cut into 8 pieces and softened
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR THE FILLING AND FROSTING:

8 ozs cream cheese OR mascarpone cheese softened
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup heavy cream

FOR FINISHING:

1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

PREP OVEN AND PAN:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Line with a parchment round, and lightly spray entire pan; set aside.

MAKE CAKE:

In a large bowl, add all of the cake ingredients and whisk until smooth and combined, about 1 minute.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool cake cool on a wire rack in the pan for 20 minutes. Remove cake from pan, discarding parchment, and let cool completely on a wire rack, about 2 hours.

MAKE CRUMB TOPPING:

Mix flour and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Cut in butter and vanilla until the mixture is crumbly. Cover and place in the refrigerator to chill.

MAKE FILLING AND FROSTING:

Whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
In another bowl, beat cream cheese or mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon juice and zest on medium speed until smooth.
Fold in whipped cream until combined.

FINISH CAKE:

Split cake horizontally, and place one layer on a cardboard round. Reserve ½ cup of filling, and use the rest to fill the cake.
Place the second layer on top of the filling. Use reserved ½ cup filling to frost just the sides of the cake. Break crumb topping into chunks and press crumb topping into sides of the cake. Chill at least 1 hour. Dust top of the cake with powdered sugar. Slice and serve.

Notes

On a recent trip to Olive Garden, we noticed that they don't put the crumb topping on the cake any longer. Feel free to leave the crumb topping off, especially if you are adverse to raw flour.
If you don't have a 9-inch springform pan you can use (2) 9-inch cake pans and bake the cakes for about 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Nutrition