Lemon Pound Cake: Simple Bundt Cake Recipe (2024)

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This Lemon Pound Cake is velvety soft, moist, buttery, and tender. Flavored with fresh lemon zest and juice, it’s an easy-to-make cake that’s absolutely spring perfect.

Lemon Pound Cake: Simple Bundt Cake Recipe (1)

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It’s the ultimate dessert for afternoon tea, Easter, the brunch season, Mother’s Day, or whenever you’re craving a sweet cake brightly flavored with bursts of sunshine. In other words, anything lemon.

The recipe has two steps and is made with simple ingredients.

After mixing and baking the cake, a lemon syrup is basted onto its surface as it cools. This enhances its wonderful lemon flavor.

Lemon Pound Cake: Simple Bundt Cake Recipe (2)

What I Love About this Lemon Pound Cake

amazingly moist, soft, buttery, and tender
very dense while still tasting light
smooth and velvety
simple ingredients
lemony and fragrant
tastes like spring

Lemon Pound Cake: Simple Bundt Cake Recipe (3)

Lemon Pound Cake Ingredients

Bring all ingredients to room temperature before mixing.

Baking Ingredients:
You will need all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar.

2 Reasons to Bake with Room Temperature Eggs

When the eggs are at room temperature, a mixer can more quickly incorporate the eggs into the batter. Over-mixed batter will result in a heavy lemon pound cake.

Two Reasons to Always Bake with Room Temperature Eggs.

At room temperature, egg yolks break quickly allowing them to combine with other ingredients more quickly.
Room temperature eggs give more volume to baked products and give a lighter and fluffier texture.

How to Get Room Temperature Eggs

Here are a couple of ideas on how to get room temperature eggs. You can leave them on the counter for 30 minutes, but no longer than 2 hours. Or, you can cover eggs with warm, not hot water, for 15 to 20 minutes.

Lemon Pound Cake: Simple Bundt Cake Recipe (4)

How to Make this Lemon Pound Cake

Here’s a brief overview of how to make the Lemon Pound Cake in a Bundt pan. The full written recipe is below.

Whisk the dry ingredients: In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Cream butter and sugar: Cream together room temperature butter and sugar until fluffy and light.
Beat in room temperature eggs 1 at a time: To the egg and butter mixture, beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, until each is fully incorporated before adding the next.
Mix buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest: In a small bowl or liquid measure, mix the liquids together.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Alternate the flour and buttermilk mixture with the butter and eggs mixture. Begin and end with flour.
Spoon the pound cake batter into a prepared bundt pan.
Bake the pound cake.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting it onto a rack to cool completely. While still warm, brush the lemon syrup over the top.

Lemon Icing for Lemon Pound Cake

I did not put lemon icing on the pound cake in these photographs. It was only because I loved the intricate design of the bundt pan.

However! Can there be Lemon Pound Cake without Lemon Icing? Not in my book.

I top individual servings with lemon icing. All you need is for the icing is confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar) and fresh lemon juice.

Lemon Pound Cake: Simple Bundt Cake Recipe (5)

Make the Pound Cake Ahead

This Lemon Pound Cake can be frozen without the glaze for up to 3 months. After it is completely cooled, double-wrap it securely with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap, or place it in a heavy-duty freezer bag. Thaw the overnight on the countertop before serving. (Add the syrup before the cake is frozen and add the glaze after the cake is thawed.)

Lemon Pound Cake

Yield: 16 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

This Lemon Pound Cake is velvety soft, moist, buttery, and tender. Flavored with fresh lemon zest and juice, it's an easy to make cake that's absolutely spring perfect.

Ingredients

Pound Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Lemon Syrup

1/4 cup water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

Preheat the oven to325°Fand place an oven rack in the middle.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk the buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice together. Set aside.
Cream Butter: Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat each egg until incorporated before adding the next egg. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Add Dry Ingredients: In this step, you will alternate the flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour. Begin by adding 1/4 of the flour mixture to the butter and egg mixture. Then add 1/3 of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat until you've added all of the flour and buttermilk. Scrape down the bowl as needed and be sure the ingredients are well incorporated.
Grease the Pan: Generously grease a 10-inch Bundt pan with a cooking spray containing flour. Be sure to coat all of the crevices thoroughly.
Transfer the Batter: Spoon the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
Bake Cake: Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until the cake is a tester comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, carefully run an offset spatula around the edges of your pan to loosen the cake. Cook in the pan for 10 minutes. Don't let it cool in the pan too long or it may stick.
Lemon Syrup: While the cake is cooling in the pan, make the simple lemon syrup. Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in the lemon juice.
Invert the cake onto a cooling rack with parchment underneath. Brush the lemon syrup over the cake, letting it soak in as you go. Let the cake cool completely before slicing and glazing if you desire.

Notes

Greasing the Pan:

In this recipe, I used a Nordic Ware Blossom Bundt Pan. While it's beautiful, it's also intricate. It is especially important to generously grease this pan. I used Pam cooking spray with flour but Baker's Joy works great too.

You can also use a classic Bundt pan for this recipe with beautiful results.

If you want to bake the pound cake in loaf pans, use 2 8 1/2" x 4 1/4" loaf pans. Coat the pans with nonstick spray and line the bottom of the pan with parchment if desired. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.

Lemon Icing:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly lemon juice

Whisk together the ingredients, adding lemon juice and confectioners' sugar until desired but pourable consistency.

Storage:

This Lemon Pound Cake can be frozen, unglazed, for up to 3 months. Once completely cooked, wrap first in plastic wrap and then foil. Place in a heavy-duty freezer bag. Thaw overnight on the counter before serving. And then glaze if desired.

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