Cheesecake Factory Italian Lemon Cream Cake (2024)

Published: Mar 17, 2022 Modified: March 17, 2022 by Nina

This Italian lemon cream cake is my version of the popular one from the Cheesecake Factory. This cake has fluffy vanilla cake layers, a filling of lemon mascarpone cream, and the outside of the cake has a lemon crumb topping. Powdered sugar is dusted over the whole cake for a pretty finish.

🍋A perfect cake for spring

This Italian lemon cream cake is perfect for spring! It has a hint of lemon flavour, so it's not too strong of a lemon flavour, like some lemon desserts. The cake is made of vanilla layers, so the lemon is just in the filling and the crumb topping.

This cake can be made in advance to make it easier. I made the cake layers in advance and froze them. I made the crumb topping and the lemon mascarpone filling the day before I wanted to serve it. Assembling the cake was very easy after everything was prepared.

If you like lemon desserts, try my lemon meringue cheesecake, lemon lovers trifle, lemon pound cake loaf or fudgy lemon brownies! All these recipes are also perfect for spring!

🥘Ingredients

Ingredient notes

• Lemon - you will only need one for this recipe.
• Whole milk - you can also use buttermilk or 2% milk.
• Unsalted butter - If you use salted butter in this recipe, leave out the additional salt.
• Mascarpone cheese - Mascarpone cheese gives this cake an authentic Italian flavour. If you can not find it, you can substitute with cream cheese.

🔪Instructions

Cake layer

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together. Set it aside and beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater attachment. Add eggs and mix to combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Slowly mix in vanilla extract and milk.

Stir dry ingredients into the cake batter and then pour the batter into a grease and parchment paper lined 8 inch cake pan. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 25-30 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in it's pan for 5 minutes, and then turn it out onto a wired rack to cool completely.

You can make the cake layer in advance. I froze mine for 2 days before I wanted to serve the cake.

Crumb Topping

Spread flour on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 350°F (177°C) for 5 minutes. This cooks out the raw taste of the flour. Let cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk cooled flour and powdered sugar together. Using a pastry cutter, forks, or your hands, cut in cold butter into the dry ingredients. You want the butter to coat all the dry ingredients and the size to be small. We don't want big chunks on our cake.

Stir in lemon zest and vanilla, and store it in the refrigerator to get it cold, about 1 hour.

Lemon Mascarpone Cream Filling

Whip heavy whipping cream in a large bowl to stiff peaks, and set aside. In another large bowl, mix mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest and juice. Gently fold in whipped cream. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Assembly

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 powdered sugar all over the cake. If not serving immediately, wait to dust the cake with powdered sugar. Powdered sugar will seep into the cake after awhile.

For more step by step photos, see the web story for Italian lemon cream cake.

💭FAQs

📋 Recipe