Lemon Pound Cake
on Sep 14, 2021, Updated Jul 12, 2024
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Lemon Pound Cake that is incredibly soft, moist, and bursting with lemon flavor. This cakes is a perfect dessert to add some sunshine to your day.
This recipe for lemon pound cake tastes so light and fresh. Even if lemon isn’t your favorite flavor, I think you will be surprised at how much you will like this pound cake. The lemony glaze on top really makes the cake in my opinion.
Lemon pound cake is easy to make from scratch. Aside from maybe the lemons, you most likely have all of the necessary ingredients in your kitchen right now. This is my tried and true recipe that turns out delicious every time. Eat it as is, with some freshly whipped cream, or blueberry topping (or both).
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Versatile : Lemon pound cake can be enjoyed on its own, with a cup of tea or coffee, or dressed up with fresh berries, whipped cream, or glazed.
- Lovely Presentation: The finished cake looks beautiful so its a great choice for serving for when you need something that looks fancy (but is actually easy.)
- Bright and Refreshing Flavor: The lemon adds a bright, zesty flavor to the cake. It’s perfect for any time of year when you want a little bit of sunshine on your plate.
Ingredients
- Cake Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Lemon Zest
- Lemon Juice
- Unsalted Butter
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Lemon Pound Cake
Step #1. Preheat the oven. Grease and flour a loaf or Bundt pan.
Step #3. Sift the flour in, 1/3 at a time, whisking after each addition. After the last addition, gently whisk until there are no lumps.
Step #2. Combine the eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a food processor. While running, add the melted butter. Pour the mixture into a large bowl.
Step #4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the pan on the counter to settle. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes, then remove from pan.
Recipe FAQs
You can bake lemon pound cake in a typical loaf pan or you can use a Bundt pan. Using a Bundt pan makes the presentation of the cake a little more beautiful. If you go that route be sure to adequately grease the pan to ensure it doesn’t tear when removing it.
I love to serve lemon pound cake for any type of shower, a Sunday dinner dessert, or a fun breakfast treat. This cake will elevate any occasion for the better because it is bright, cheery, and tastes incredible.
My recommendation is to use fresh lemons versus the bottles you can buy at the store. Using freshly squeezed lemons will really kick up the flavor!
Lemon pound cake stays best when stored at room temperature and wrapped tightly. It will be good for about 3-4 days like this. Pound cake freezes well too.
Expert Tips
- I know it doesn’t seem like it would make that much of difference if you used cold ingredients straight from the fridge, but it does. When the ingredients (especially butter) are at room temperature they are able to be creamed together easier and the texture of the cake will be better. This could be the difference between a failed pound cake and a successful one!
- Zest your lemons before juicing them. It makes zesting SO much easier.
- If you choose to glaze your cake, it’s best to do it while the cake is still warm.
- If you’re still learning how to test for doneness with a toothpick, check it with an instant read thermometer too. There’s nothing worse than finding out that the middle of your cake it underdone when you cut into it!
More Cake Recipes to Consider
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Lemon Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and hot
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Grease loaf pan with butter then dust with flour to coat bottom and sides of the pan. Dump out any excess flour.
- Process sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice together in a food processor until combined, about 10 seconds.
- With the food processor running, add hot melted butter in a steady stream until incorporated.
- Pour mixture into a large bowl.
- Sift flour into the egg mixture, in three additions. Whisk to combine flour and egg mixture after each addition, until just a few streaks of flour remain. Whisk the batter gently until almost no lumps remain.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top of the batter, and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter.
- Bake the cake for about 50 minutes ( if 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan) or 45 minutes (if 9 by 5 inch loaf pan), rotating pan halfway through baking. The cake is done when the toothpick comes out clean after being inserted in the center.
- Let cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. After removing from pan, let it cool completely.
Notes
- I’ve made this without the food processor a few times and it turns out great still.
- Room temperature ingredients are the way to go when making this cake.
- This cake is delicious all by itself or dressed up a bit with some whipped cream, or fruit like raspberries or this blueberry topping.
- You can find the vanilla version for this pound cake recipe here.
