Lemon Pound Cake

5 from 1 vote

Discover the ultimate Lemon Pound Cake! This recipe yields a perfectly dense, moist, and intensely lemon-flavored cake with a zesty glaze. An easy, impressive dessert.

Prep Time1

Cook Time55

Total Time1 55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: lemon bundt, lemon pound cake

Servings: slices

Calories: 487cal

Author: Amy Desrosiers

Cost: $4

Equipment

oven adjusted to center rack position
Hand Mixer
mixing bowl
Measuring cups and spoons
Lemon Zester
bundt pan

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter softened
2 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
¾ cup buttermilk *see note for homemade buttermilk
1 tablespoon lemon zest (zest of one large lemon)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon water

Instructions

Bundt Cake

Preheat your oven to 325℉.
Grease your bundt cake pan with shortening generously. You will also add granulated sugar 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.

Notes

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

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.

Nutritional values may vary and are meant to be a guide.

Nutrition