If you’re unfamiliar with the idea, a poke cake is a simple, yet genius concept. After baking a yellow or white cake, holes are poked over the top. Then, the cake is covered with some mixture that will then seep down into those freshly-poked holes. After some refrigerator time, the cake is frosted.
I used a version of a yellow cake that is my normal go-to. It’s more dense than not, but that allows it to hold up to all the pokes and the thick, heavy topping.
There are some old-fashioned versions with little tunnels of freshly-mixed Jell-O brightening up a standard cake. Some versions use pudding. I simplified a bit by mixing condensed milk and fresh lemon juice. It’s a thick mixture and will not soak completely into the cake. That’s perfectly fine. No cause for concern!
Of course, what better way to top off a refrigerated cake than with cream cheese frosting? Splash in a little more lemon juice for even more lemon flavor.
The three components of this cake are all lemon-flavored. Each one has just a hint of lemon. The finished cake still maintains a very gentle lemon flavor. There’s no doubt that this is a lemon cake, but it doesn’t beat you over the head with it. It’s lovely and cool and just the thing for dessert on a summer day.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2-3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1-1 & 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1 cup sour cream
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9"x 13" baking pan.
To make the cake:
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in lemon juice and lemon zest. Gradually add flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Stir in sour cream.
Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
To make the topping:
Whisk together condensed milk and 1/4 cup lemon juice until smooth. Using a fork, poke holes over entire surface of warm cake. Pour mixture over cake. Note that not all of the mixture will be absorbed into the cake.
Allow cake to cool completely. Refrigerate cake for at least 1-2 hours to allow topping to set and soak into cake.
To make the frosting:
Beat cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice until smooth. Spread evenly over topping of cool cake. Refrigerate at least an hour before serving.
Notes
Don't be shy when it's time to poke holes in the cake! You want lots of little holes for all that topping. I do recommend not making the holes all the way to the bottom of the cake so you don't have any topping in the bottom of the pan.
Keep cake refrigerated.
July 25th, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Yum! Will have to try this. My favorite poke cake is what my family always called “Chocolate Soaky Cake.” It’s a yellow cake with holes poked in it and topped with boiled fudge icing. The chocolate soaks down into the cake and hardens. So good!
July 25th, 2012 at 5:11 pm
woman just give me a bucket of that frosting!
July 25th, 2012 at 6:27 pm
This is beautiful! I love lemon. YUMMY!
July 25th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
Nice. Seems simple yet refreshing and delicious. Great photos!
July 26th, 2012 at 9:25 am
This looks lovely! I was wondering if the lemon frosting mixture would also be adequate for macaron filling?
July 26th, 2012 at 12:03 pm
What a genius idea! I saw something similar for a Mexican cake, I love all the lemon you’ ve used!
July 26th, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Your photos are just beautiful! I’d love to pick your brain on your shooting secrets/techniques.
And this cake looks easy yet delicious. Thanks for posting!
July 26th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Janet, I think the frosting wouldn’t be sturdy/stable enough for macarons. Even refrigerated, it’s very soft.
July 26th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I have never heard of poke cakes before…..it sounds amazing. So does the cake have to be fairly dry in order to soak up the topping well?
July 27th, 2012 at 10:17 am
This looks delicious! Is “poke cake” the technical term?
July 27th, 2012 at 9:00 pm
Oh, I just love poke cake. It’s my one go-to cake recipe for a moist, delicious result every time. Never thought of using lemon before, though. I’ve always made strawberry or raspberry, using Jello mix and hot water to “soak” the cake. Your recipe looks wonderful!
July 27th, 2012 at 9:11 pm
Edith , it doesn’t need to be dry. I do make it a bit dense so it will hold up to all the holes poked into it and all the topping.
July 30th, 2012 at 10:55 am
That looks delicious! I wonder if you could also use lemon curd (such as the lighter lemon curd recipe?) for the topping?
July 30th, 2012 at 11:02 am
Jennifer, I think lemon curd would be lovely!
August 4th, 2012 at 6:35 pm
I made this today, well, sort of. I used a box cake mix, but made the topping as written. The topping is delicious, but never did sink into the cake. It just sat on top like a traditional frosting. I think the lemon juice thickened up the condensed milk too much. Anyway, it was a great tasting cake!
August 8th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
The perfect dessert for summer for me is anything with lemon. Thanks for sharing this. It will be on my counter within the week! Gary
August 17th, 2012 at 7:07 am
I used to make poke cakes when I was young with my mom using boxed mixes and jello. I have never thought to make a from-scratch version! This cake sounds refreshingly delicious!
November 1st, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Hi Jennifer. This looks like a great recipe! I am an editor for AllFreeCasseroleRecipes.com and I wanted to let you know that I featured this recipe in a blog post. You can find it here: http://blog.recipelion.com/trending-jello-poke-cake-recipes-big-hit/
November 11th, 2012 at 11:32 am
Did you mean sweetened condensed milk?
I’m in the middle of making this and just made the topping with regular condensed milk. Doesn’t seem right…so I think I’m going to use sweetened…but then I’m worried it’s going to be too sweet.
November 11th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Petra, it is sweetened condensed milk. Sorry for the confusion!
December 28th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Could I possibly use lime zest in the topping to give it that lemon lime flavor?
December 28th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Or possibly Orange zest?
December 28th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Of course, Michael. Either one would be fine.
March 27th, 2013 at 8:43 am
Hey! This looks so delicious…..
I really want to have this cake for my birthday, or a variation of it!
A large post-it note is now devoted to that thought
I would really love to try this with coconut!
Maybe coconut cream soaked into it, with a whipped cream frosting
and toasted coconut? Sounds enchanting!
Any thoughts?
Thank you for the awesome recipes!!
March 27th, 2013 at 10:37 am
Hi, Claire! My mother used to make a cake very similar to this one with coconut. She used a boxed yellow cake mix, poured coconut milk over that to soak into the holes, topped it with whipped cream and sweetened coconut. One of my favorites!
March 27th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
I’m definitely trying that!
Have a great Easter.
I shall be cooking some of your recipes for our celebration!
I’ve fallen in love with your recipes.
Thank you!
April 3rd, 2013 at 10:04 pm
Do you have a strawberry lemon version of this?
April 4th, 2013 at 9:52 am
Christy, I haven’t made a strawberry-lemon version. You could easily add some pureed strawberries to the frosting. It might be possible to add some to the topping, but it might make it too thick to soak into the cake.
April 7th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
I made this today, only used a box lemon cake, added creme fraische to condensed milk and puréed blackberries. It was unbelievable! I bet you could add a little regular cream to the condensed milk if you used puréed strawberry and it would soak right in, just not too much.
April 8th, 2013 at 11:56 am
Hello –
I made this yesterday and although the cake had great flavor, the “poke” part is misleading. I poked the cake as directed, but none of the topping soaked through. It pretty much just sat at the top of the cake. I was expecting the cake to be moist because of the condensed milk, but it pretty much resulted in regular lemon cake with condensed milk sitting on the top and frosting on the top of that. Good flavor, but I wouldn’t make this again unfortunately.
April 19th, 2013 at 11:03 pm
My aunt gave us a poke cake recipe when I lived at home. I have to say, the condensed milk part is a new twist, We used lemon pudding.
If a fork does not make big enough “pokes” try a butter knife.
May 4th, 2013 at 1:43 pm
Really appreciate that you made the cake from scratch rather than using a cake mix. I’m off to pin it on my Cake Board and my Lemons & Limes Board on Pinterest.com
May 16th, 2013 at 11:58 pm
My Mom requested a lemon poke cake for Mother’s Day and I decided a made-from-scratch cake was the way to go. The lemon flavor and cream cheese frosting was excellent, but the cake and “poke effect” were huge disappointments. Like many others have found, the condensed milk does not seep into the cake, resulting in a dry cake with gooey condensed milk and cream cheese frosting on top. Cake mix and Jello is fool-proof.
May 19th, 2013 at 10:22 am
I made this and I think the sweetened condensed milk was a little too thick and didn’t seep into the cake very well. I think I’ll add a little evaporated milk next time to thin it out a bit. The cake was still good though!