This Iced Lemon Pound Cake is made in a bundt pan. It is a dense, perfectly sweet, lemon-flavored pound cake. The lemon flavor is not overwhelming at all and lets the pound cake flavor shine through. Made mainly with pantry staples, this cake would be delightful paired with fresh berries, or eaten alone.
Looking to bake up a delicious pound cake with the perfect balance of buttery goodness with a hint of vibrant lemon? If so, this recipe is perfect! You can bake it up in a 10″ bundt cake pan, however it must be properly greased and sugared to prevent sticking.
Your guests will love this delicious cake which pairs so well with fresh whipped cream and strawberry compote. It also makes a yummy breakfast recipe as well as a dessert for parties and functions. I love that it uses fairly common ingredients with fresh lemon being the only thing I had to pick up.
Soften butter
Having room temperature butter is super important to making this recipe a hit. You cannot use cold butter or it will not combine well with the sugar and eggs.
If you cannot let your butter sit out for at least 1 hour, you can soften in the microwave on defrost mode for 20 second intervals. You want the butter to be able to keep its shape and be soft to the touch. Do not melt the butter to liquid or you will not get the same baking results.
Homemade buttermilk
While this recipe calls for buttermilk, you do not have to run out to buy it. You can easily make it at home with whole milk and white vinegar, or lemon juice. I used lemon juice and added 1 tablespoon to 1 cup of whole milk. Be sure to let it sit for 10 minutes. The milk will look a bit curdled but that is normal.
Baking in a loaf pan
You can bake this in two small loaf pans. Make sure the sizes are the standard 8 1/2 ” by 4 1/2″ variation. Simply follow the generous shortening pan coating.
They will take about 40-45 minutes to bake together. Be sure to toothpick test them. The toothpick should come out clean.
Prevent cake from sticking
I admit, a piece of mine stuck to the pan because I didn’t add enough shortening so word to the wise–add enough!
No one wants to spend time or money making a cake only to have it stick. A cake sticking to a bundt pan is such a nightmare. Since I have had my fair share of issues, I wanted to share some tips.
Use a newer bundt pan. Over time, the nonstick abilities of bundt pans fade. They lose their luster and batter starts to stick. I like to change out my bundts every 2 years. I love the Nordicware line.
Unlike most bundt cake recipes, nonstick spray will not work well for this recipe. You will need a shortening like Crisco to grease every inner surface of your pan generously followed be a sprinkling of granulated sugar right before baking. These efforts will produce a crisp outer cake “skin” and allow the cake to be easily removed once it has fully cooled.
Use a small rubber spatula to gently move the edges once the cake is cooled for at least 1 hour. I put mine on my stand right away and actually iced it on there as well. It was a little messy, so placing a cooling rack over the top of the bundt pan and inverting would work better. This way, when you ice your cake you can catch any drips on a baking sheet or wax paper underneath.
Freezing
To freeze this cake, allow it to cool completely before removing from the pan (see above). Slice the cake into 12 slices and lay them on a wax-paper lined baking sheet. Freeze the entire sheet of cake slices ((with no icing)) for 4 hours.
Once frozen, add them to freezer back or use a vacuum packing system to remove any air. This cake is good whether it is iced or not.
Lemon Pound Cake
Equipment
- Hand Mixer
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3/4 cup buttermilk *see note for homemade buttermilk
- 1 tbsp lemon zest (zest of one large lemon)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
Bundt Cake
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Grease your bundt cake pan with shortening generously. You will also add granulated suagr right before adding the batter.
- In a large bowl, combine the sugar and butter using a hand mixer. You can also use a stand mixer if need be.
- Add eggs one each at a time and mix, scraping the sides of the bowl down to incorporate everything.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredients.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, and buttermilk (*see note below if you need to make your own).
- Beat on low speed until fully combined.
- Generously sugar the shortening lined bundt pan.
- Pour wet batter into the bundt pan.
- Bake for 55-60 minutes. See notes if you are making two loaves.
- Test center of the cake with a toothpick to ensure it is fully baked.
- Allow cake to fully cool for one hour before attempting to remove it.
Glaze
- Mix ingredients in a bowl using a fork. Mixture should be thick and not watery. The longer it sits, it might develop a shell which can be mixed back in. Allowing it to sit will help thicken it up as well.
- Once the cake has fully cooled for one hour, use a rubber spatula to gently moved the edges of the cake around the pan.
- Invert bundt cake pan over a cooling rack to catch the cake. Consider adding wax paper under the cooling rack for easy clean up. By using this rack, the icing will be able to drip down.
Leave a Reply