Italian Lemon Cream Cake

If you’ve never enjoyed a slice of Italian Lemon Cream Cake, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Our copycat recipe for Olive Garden’s Lemon Cream Cake has a few extra steps, but trust me—it’s worth the effort!

This delightful Italian dessert features a light and airy sponge cake stuffed with a whipped cream mascarpone lemon filling. It is coated with a sweet crumb topping and finished with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

You don’t have to be an experienced baker to create our Italian lemon Cream Cake. Made with simple ingredients, our easy-to-follow recipe is guaranteed to impress your friends and family.

If you love delicious Italian desserts, make sure to check out my Italian cream cake and cannoli cream cake recipes.

Ingredients to make an Italian Lemon Cream Cake

Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make our Italian lemon cream cake recipe. In Chef Speak, this is called the Mise en Place, which translates into Everything in its Place.

Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.

How to Make an Italian Lemon Cream Cake

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Line an 8-inch round cake pan. Grease the sides and line them with parchment paper.

• Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and table salt to a large bowl.
• Whisk to combine the dry ingredients and set aside until needed.
• Add the unsalted butter and granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large mixing bowl and an electric hand mixer).
• Whip on high speed until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).
• Add the room temperature eggs to the creamed butter.
• Mix to combine, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed.

• Add the vanilla extract and milk to the mixture and mix to combine.
• Add the dry ingredients to the cake batter.
• Mix just enough to combine.
  *Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed.
• Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan.
• Place the pan on the center rack of the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Allow the cake to cool in its pan for 5 minutes, and then turn it out onto a wired rack to cool completely.

How to make Lemon Cream

• Add the heavy whipping cream to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment.
• Whip the heavy cream slowly until you get stiff peaks. Set aside until needed.
• Add the mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest, and fresh lemon juice to a large bowl.
• Use an electric mixer (or wooden spoon) and whip until well blended.
• Add the whipped cream to the mascarpone mixture.
• Gently fold the whipped cream into the mixture.
  *Chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

How to make a lemon crumb topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• Spread the flour out on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• Place the baking sheet on the center rack of the preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes to cook the raw taste out of the flour.
  *Let the flour cool for a few minutes before using.
• Add the cooled flour and powdered sugar to a large bowl.
• Whisk to combine.

• Add the pieces of very cold butter to the flour mixture.
• Cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter, forks, or your hands.
  *You should have a pea-size or smaller pieces.
• Add the lemon zest and vanilla extract to the crumb topping.
• Mix to combine.

*Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture is cold, about 1 hour.

How to assemble an Italian Lemon Cream Cake

• Cut the cooled cake horizontally. Place one layer on a cake plate. Reserve ¾ cup of filling, and spread or pipe the rest of the filling on top of the cake.
• Place the second cake layer on top. Spread the reserved cake filling all over the top and sides of the cake.
• Press crumb topping all over the tops and sides of the cake.
• Dust the whole cake with powdered sugar.

*If you’re not serving the Italian lemon cream cake immediately, wait to dust it with powdered sugar until you’re ready to serve. Keep the cake refrigerated until serving.

Our Italian lemon cake is perfect for your next dinner party, special occasions, or your next family get-together.

The bright lemon flavor makes this one of my favorite Italian cakes, and I know after one bite, it will become one of your favorites too!

Leftover Italian lemon cream cake should be stored refrigerated in an airtight container or well-covered with plastic wrap for 4-5 days.

Freezing isn’t suggested, as the mascarpone cream can break down. If you need to freeze leftovers, cut them into individual slices and double-wrap them in plastic wrap. Store frozen for up to two months.

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