Everybody likes cake, right? If you need to feed a crowd, this easy and delicious cake is sure to be a hit. Super moist lemon cake with a fluffy, creamy topping — Mystery Lemon Sheet Cake is perfect for a potluck.
Unless you want to eat it all by yourself. That is completely acceptable and entirely understandable considering how yummy this cake tastes.
So, you may be wondering what is mysterious about this ordinary-looking dessert.
Well, my friends, there is a secret ingredient. Except it’s not really a secret because I’m about to tell you what it is. But for those who are just eating the cake and not baking it, they may never guess what’s inside. Drum roll, please….the hard-to-detect ingredient is crushed pineapple!
The lemon flavor hides the pineapple flavor, but the pineapple gives the cake it’s dense moist texture.
So now that the mystery is no longer a mystery, let’s get to the recipe.
Mystery Lemon Sheet Cake
1 lemon cake mix (I like Duncan Hines)
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 can crushed pineapple, with juice (20 ounces)
1 lemon
1 cup sour cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, vegetable oil, eggs, and crushed pineapple. Zest the lemon and add it to the other ingredients in the bowl.
Gently blend together the ingredients. Then increase mixing speed and beat for about two minutes.
Pour the batter into a greased 9 x 13 baking pan. I just use non-stick cooking spray. Bake the cake for 30 minutes.
While the cake is baking, prepare the topping.
Put the sour cream in a medium bowl.
Add the can of sweetened condensed milk.
Juice the zested lemon. Add this lemon juice (about 1/4 cup) to the bowl.
Mix together until completely combined. Set aside until the cake is done baking.
Once the cake is out of the oven, spread the topping evenly over the top.
Pop the cake back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes to set the topping.
Cool the cake completely and then store in the refrigerator.
This cake is very moist, but not overly rich or sweet. And the topping…I’ll be honest — I could eat a whole tub of it.
