This unique lemon cake is light and fluffy like a cloud and melts in your mouth as you eat it. It is just 2 ingredients. It doesn’t contain any flour, eggs, butter or oil. The cake is sweet and has a zesty lemon flavor. It is a fun dessert to eat.
This lemon cloud cake looks like a cake but it isn’t actually a traditional cake. It’s called lemon cloud cake because the slices look like actual cake and it is extremely light and fluffy like eating a cloud.
Ingredients
- Lemonade
- Unflavored Gelatin Powder
Lemonade: Lemonade provides the lemon flavor for this cake and also the sweetness. I used store-bought refrigerated lemonade. If you prefer homemade lemonade, I share a recipe in the notes section at the end of the post.
Unflavored gelatin powder: Unflavored gelatin powder is what gives this dessert its structure. Unflavored gelatin powder can usually be found in the baking aisle of grocery stores. This recipe will not work with flavored gelatin packets.
How to Make Lemon Cloud Cake
The gelatin is first whisked into the lemonade. The mixture is then heated on the stove to allow the gelatin to fully dissolve. Once dissolved, pour the mixture into your mixing bowl and let it cool to room temperature. Beat on highest speed with an electric stand mixer until the mixture can hold a soft peak.
Pour the mixture into your baking pan and then place into the fridge until set. If desired, you can frost or decorate the dessert before serving.
Texture
This dessert has a very light and airy texture and it will soon dissolve in your mouth after you eat it. It will not have a cake crumb.
More Cloud Cake Recipes
2 Ingredient No Bake Lemon Cloud Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups (316 ml) lemonade see notes
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp (12 g) unflavored gelatin powder
Instructions
- Line an 8 inch square baking pan with a single large sheet of parchment paper. Make sure your parchment paper covers the entire inside of the pan and has enough extra above the pan that you can use as handles to lift the cake out later.
- Add lemonade to a medium saucepan. Sprinkle gelatin on top. Use a whisk to fully mix the gelatin in until no clumps remain. Bring your mixture to medium heat on the stove. Let the mixture get hot but don't let it reach a simmer. Whisk a few times once the mixture is hot to ensure that the gelatin is fully dissolved. Remove mixture from heat.
- Pour mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Let your mixture cool to room temperature (about 15-20 minutes). Once the mixture has cooled, use the wire whisk attachment and beat on highest speed for about 15 minutes. The mixture should gradually thicken, turn white and eventually should looked like meringue. When you stop your mixer, your wire whisk should be able to hold a soft peak. Even if your mixture has not reached meringue consistency after 15 minutes, stop your mixer. Let the mixture stand for 1 minute and then beat for about another 5 minutes or until it can hold a soft peak. See post for photo of what the mixture should look like when it is ready. If you use store bought lemonade you will need less mixing time than if you use homemade lemonade. See notes for more details.
- Pour mixture into your prepared pan. Use a spatula to spread it evenly across and smooth the surface. Place into fridge until set. This should take abotu 30-60 minutes. To check if cake is set, press lightly on the surface. The cake should not be wet or liquid and it should feel springy and bounce back.
- Keep the cake in the fridge until ready to serve. Before serving, you can decorate the cake with whipped cream frosting or other frosting. Slice cake with a very large and sharp knife. The cake is best served chilled. Store any uneaten cake in the fridge.
Notes
- This recipe is very easy to make but you do need to be careful about adding the correct ingredients and quantities. Adding too much lemonade will prevent the mixture from whipping up correctly. Adding too much gelatin will change the texture of the dessert and it won't be soft and fluffy.
- I do not have a substitute for unflavored gelatin powder.
- I used Knox unflavored gelatin powder.*
- *This product link is an affiliate link. This means I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
- When measuring the gelatin, make sure to level off the top of the measuring spoon with a knife to have an accurate measurement.
- The cake texture will vary slightly if you use store bought versus homemade lemonade. I prefer the texture of the cake when I used the store bought lemonade as it was a little fluffier. In addition, the store bought lemonade version only needed 15 minutes of mixing on high speed. The homemade lemonade version will need more time, about 20 minutes (but you should stop after 15 minutes and let it rest one minute as instructed). The homemade lemonade version is also slightly denser.
- For store-bought lemonade, I used Simply Lemonade brand. It should work with other brands but try to use ones that are refrigerated, not from concentrate, and contain about 11% juice and contain a regular amount of sugar. Or use the homemade lemonade recipe I share further below in these notes.
- The batter is best mixed in a stand mixer. While you can use a hand mixer, it may take longer and you will want a very deep bowl so there is no splatter.
- This cake is sweet (but not super sweet) and has a good zesty lemon flavor. If you've made my other cloud cakes before, this one is definitely sweeter and has more flavor because of the lemons.
- Homemade lemonade:Â If you prefer to use homemade lemonade I recommend you use the recipe below. I also recommend you make the lemonade ahead of time so that it has time to cool in the fridge before using. Homemade lemonade recipes can vary a lot in amount of lemons and sugar, which does affect the dessert and can prevent it from whipping up correctly, so I recommend you using to the recipe below.
- Ingredients: 1/2 cup lemon juice (make sure to strain all pulp so it is just pure lemon juice); 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups water (divided).
- Directions: First, make the simple syrup. Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water into a small saucepan. Bring stove to medium high heat and keep stirring the mixture until the sugar is fully dissolved. Do not let the mixture reach a simmer. You don't want it to get too concentrated. Once sugar is dissolved, turn off heat.
- Pour lemon juice into a large container. Add in simple syrup and 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir until fully combined. Place into fridge until chilled. This recipe will yield a little less than double the amount you will need to make the cake so make sure to measure out only 1 1/3 cups for the lemon cake.
- If you prefer a sweeter cake, add a frosting. You can also add a frosting for appearance. I added a simple whipped cream frosting and added a few drops of yellow food coloring. Since the cake itself is white, I wanted yellow frosting to represent the lemon flavor of the cake.
- Whipped Cream Frosting: Add 1 cup of cold heavy cream and 3 tbsp of sugar to a large mixing bowl. If desired, add 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring. Beat on highest speed until stiff peaks form. You can substitute the sugar with sugar substitutes. I also added some fresh lemon zest on top after I frosted the cake.
- Low Carb Version:Â This cake can easily be made low carb. You can purchase keto-friendly lemonade or make your own following my homemade recipe and using a sugar substitute (I used erythritol) to make the simple syrup. Make sure your sugar substitute is something similar to erythritol, monkfruit or allulose. Something concentrated like Stevia drops will not work well to make the simple syrup.
- The nutrition estimate is for the regular version of this cake made with Simply Lemonade, not the low carb version and it also does not include the optional frosting.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
How many pieces should you getvfrom 8″ pan?
I would like to do for a summer event for 50 people.
What is the math?
1″ thick. To fit a standard sheet tray.
Thank you.
Sorry, but we’re not sure.
Would this recipe work with Tropicana Zero Sugar Lemonade?
We haven’t tried it, but it should! Let us know how it works.
I made it exactly as the recipe called and it turned out amazing. Light and fluffy and topped with whipped cream. I’m making it today with raspberry lemonade, can’t wait to try it!
We’re happy you loved it! The raspberry lemonade sounds like a great idea, too.
Loo
It was so good I didnt get to snap a pic! i made this dessert as part of a friend’s son 10th birthday party. It was a slumber party and my intention was to dlip it from the fridge to a cooler and serve it at the springs the next day. I went to get ot out and there was literally one piece…3/4 of s piece left?. i guess the boys enjoyed it as a late night snack. My friend and I shared the last 3/4…1/2 piece.
Wow, I’m so glad the boys enjoyed it!
I can’t wait to try this recipe, it sounds delicious and super simple! I made a similar lemonade ice cream pie it was the best pie I have ever made! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
We hope you enjoyed it!
Opted for homemade lemonade using organic lemons & regular sugar. I followed the measurements very carefully. The lemonade was terribly sweet, unpalatable to my taste. As mentioned, it took way longer to whip. Never achieved the soft peak, even after whipping feverishly for 36 minutes. I thought I was going to burn out the motor on my mixer so I gave up at that point (thankfully it turned out fine). Instead of the recommended cake pan, I used parfait cups, which was much easier. I topped them with slices of fresh lemon and a sprig of mint. The results were nice, spongey, but not as lemony as I was hoping and slightly bland. Whipped crème frosting would definitely take it up a notch, but I want to keep it healthy so I’ll top with a homemade raspberry coulis next time.
Had a few questions: Why do you need to chill the lemonade & then heat it up? Isn’t it easier to add the gelatin to room temp lemonade, then heat to fully dissolve it? Putting the gelatin in the cold lemonade made big clumps that were a bit difficult to break up and dissolve.
The homemade lemonade needs to be chilled so that the flavors have a chance to develop. Once it is chilled, you can bring the amount you plan on using to room temperature though you should keep the remaining in the fridge. How sweet people prefer their lemonade varies a lot. It is easy to dilute this lemonade to suit your personal palate but since the cake is only sweetened with the lemonade, it is better for the lemonade to be on the sweeter side so that the cake has some sweetness. You mentioned you made the lemonade using the recipe provided – did you use all of it in the recipe? The recipe we provide yields more than you will need, so if you added all of it that might be why you couldn’t get the mixture whipped properly. Also did you stop your mixer after 15 minutes? It’s important to do that because the mixture becomes too warm and won’t whip up otherwise.
You need to include all the steps to the recipie. The whole time I kept asking myself how do I get the top layer… I had to scroll the way down past the recipe to find out.
The topping is optional which is why we included it in the recipe card notes.
It says to pin this recipe, I have to add my birthrate but I tried.to scroll back in the years before to get to mine and it wouldn’t work
It sounds like you are having an issue with the pinterest site, which unfortunately we have no control over. When you click the pin button it directs you to pinterest so that you can pin it with your pinterest account.
A substitute for the gelatin could be AGAR AGAR.
it will not work with agar.
My son can’t have gelatin (or eggs or flour or protein). Do you know if this would work with a non-gelatin mix?Â
We have only tested the recipe with gelatin.
You have a typo in the directions. It says “Remove from meat” instead of remove from heat.
thank you, I’ve corrected it!
Does this seperate into two layers as it cools? A yellow layer and a white layer? It looks like the yellow layer would taste like the lemon . . . Does the white layer taste like lemon, too?
No, the top layer is a whipped cream frosting. The instructions for making it are in the recipe card notes.
How do you make the bottom part white and top part yellow ?
As stated in the post and recipe, the yellow part is frosting
Looks very good
Thanks for the recipe!  I’m going to try this at of next Ladies Coffee next month.  I’ll bet they’ll love it!
We hope they do!
I’m recovering from a brain bleed .
These easy recipes make me want to get busy and have. My own place again.
We hope you feel better soon!
If I had a kitchen…
Can you just use lemon jello and whip it up?
No, that would completely change the recipe.
I did made the regular version & the lower carb version at the same time. They were both a huge hit I’m! I’m going to be trying the strawberry or apple flavor next. I also may try an orange version. You won’t regret making this!
Thanks for sharing!
When you say Lemonade is it the aerated Lemon drinks we get in the stores?….OR is it basically Fresh Lime Water?
You should use plain lemonade for this recipe. We use Simply Lemonade which is available at most grocery stores in the US.
SIMPLY AMAZING!!! I made this cloud cake tonight for my family’s evening meal and WOW!!! This is sooo good!!!!! I will not lie I made 2 batches (separately) but for the second batch I made half the lemonade/gelatin mixture into more of a thickened pie filling and the other half the way this recipe calls and I put the cloud cake on top of the “thickened” filling and omg’ness that one simply amazing as well. Both cakes went over sooooo well!! Even my husband who has the eating habits of an unmonitored 4 year old enjoyed it!!! I’m so excited to make the other kinds of these. Thank you so much for sharing this!!!
I’m so glad your family enjoyed it!
Thank you from a non=baker. 🙂
You’re welcome!
Your Lemon Cloud Cake looks so good!! One question though. In the pictures it looks like 2 different layers. In the directions it sounds like only one layer. It looks better with the 2 layers.
What is the difference?
Thanks!!
The top layer is a whipped cream frosting – we share how to make it in the recipe card notes section.
I will try most of all these no bake treats
We hope you love them!
Easy and look yummy.
Yummy
We’re glad you liked it!
I am definitely going to try this, but I have 2 questions:
1) Can I use Meyer lemon juice to make the lemonade? I’m not sure if there is some interaction between the acidity of the lemon juice and the gelatin, and Meyer lemon juice is less acid than regular lemon juice.
2) Can I use Splenda instead of sugar to make the lemonade? Again, I’m not sure if the sugar in the lemonade interacts with the gelatin in any way.
Thank you!
We’re not sure about either of these but with meyer lemons if there’s not enough acid the gelatin may not set. We also haven’t tried this recipe with a sugar substitute.