This easy lemon pound cake looks and tastes like it took a lot more time and effort than it actually does. Relying on yogurt in place of sour cream ensures the tender-crumbed cake is moist. Using a Bundt pan ensures the appearance is stunning. So when life hands you lemons, make this lemon pound cake. Guaranteed to give you a far more favorable outlook on everything.–Renee Schettler Rossi
Lemon Pound Cake
Equipment
- 12-cup Bundt pan
Ingredients
For the lemon pound cake
- 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the pan
- 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest, (from 3 to 4 lemons, preferably organic)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, (from 2 to 3 lemons, preferably organic)
- 6 large eggs
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup plain full-fat Greek-style yogurt
For the glaze
- 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, (from 1 lemon, preferably organic)
Instructions
Make the lemon pound cake
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Generously butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan and stash it in the fridge.
- Grab an electric mixer and beat together the granulated sugar, butter, and lemon zest on medium speed until the mixture is really quite fluffy, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice and beat until blended. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until the yellow streaks disappear after each addition.
- Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Add this to the butter mixture in a couple additions alternately with the yogurt, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Do not over-mix the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake about 65 minutes, until a skewer inserted in center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 1 hour. Invert the cake onto a cake stand or platter and cool completely, about 1 more hour.
Make the glaze
- Just before serving, reach for a small bowl and a whisk and mix the confectioners’ sugar with the remaining 2 tablespoons lemon juice and whisk until smooth.
Glaze the lemon pound cake
- Drizzle the glaze over the cake. Slice, serve, and accept accolades.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This lemon pound cake is delicious. As the name suggests, the lemon is really prominent, which I love. The ingredients and directions are simple and straightforward, so the batter comes together easily and quickly. Take care not to go straight to medium speed on the mixer when beating the butter, zest, and sugar or your ingredients may fly out of the bowl. After 5 minutes the mixture was light and fluffy. The end result was spectacular. Don’t pass on this recipe! I used butter and flour to slick the pan, but my Bundt pan was hard to coat, so I ended up using nonstick spray, too.
I love lemon pound cake! I’ve tried my hand at many different recipes, and this one was very simple and straightforward. The texture of the cake was very unique—it was very spongy and not crumbly at all. The flavor was a very delicate lemon and the golden brown parts on the bottom were an added depth of flavor. I love to serve Bundt cakes—people are always impressed, and they involve minimal hands-on time.
This lemon pound cake was sensational. It was the perfect cake to enjoy with a cup of coffee or to eat for breakfast (if you do that sort of thing.) It came together really quickly and required little advance planning. I found the cake to be very buttery when I removed the pan. Perhaps I used too much butter on the pan? Perhaps it shouldn’t really cool in the pan for an hour—most of my cakes get removed after 10 minutes so that they do not steam in the pan while cooking. I actually had to blot the cake with paper towels.
Lemon lovers gather for this delightfully easy and yummy lemon pound cake! The made-from-scratch pound cake is good as is and is good even without the glaze. Perfect with a cup of tea. It can also be a nice birthday cake—substitute a lemony buttercream for the glaze and voila! I had to let it cool for at least an hour before removing it from the pan.
The flavor is great. The cake is rich and beautifully lemony. Would I make this again? Yes. It’s perfect for the holidays. I think you could use a little less sugar and it would still be okay. I had a really, really difficult time getting this out of the pan. I think itʻs the combination of so much sugar and lemon juice. Given how rich this cake is, Iʻd say it definitely serves more than 12. Also, I think it needs more glaze. I’d make twice the amount of glaze called for and thin it a bit more with some water or more lemon juice.
This recipe delivers on a moist and lemony (but not overly lemony) pound cake which my family loved. I will not hesitate to make this again. I just happened to get a very nice message from my husband who grabbed a slice with his coffee on his way to work to let me know how much he enjoyed it. I stored the cake, unrefrigerated under a glass dome on a cool kitchen counter, and 3 days later it still remained just as moist and delicious as the day I baked it. I was afraid this cake would be too sweet for my taste, especially with the glaze, so when making the cake batter I measured 2 1/4 cups sugar total (leaving out 1/4 cup sugar) in the batter. The sweetness ended up being just right for my taste, but as an afterthought, the 2 1/2 cups sugar called for in the batter would have still been fine. When making this again, I wouldn’t reduce the sugar any more than I did as it may affect texture and flavor. I found the directions to be spot on. Two quick notes regarding a couple other ingredients: butter and yogurt. I started with cold butter and didn’t want to wait for it to reach room temp, so I added it to my stand mixer and whipped it up for about 5 minutes to soften before adding the sugar and mixing again I also couldn’t find a full-fat Greek yogurt at the market that didn’t have additive gums or thickeners, so I ended up purchasing Plain Grass Fed Whole Milk Yogurt, which was a great substitute. I buttered and floured my NordicWare Nonstick Bundt pan, dusted off the excess flour before putting it in the refrigerator, and I really believe this step is what helped my cake to release effortlessly when it was time to release the cake. The baking time was also right on. I really enjoyed preparing this recipe!
Dear David, just a note to thank you very much for the great recipes and most of all, your writings over the past year. It has been great fun and I have learned a lot. All the best in 2017 – I sincerely hope it is healthy and happy for you and your family.
Catherine Smith, you are very welcome. And I wish you and yours a happy and healthy 2017!
Since baking is a precise science as you rightly say, could you provide the flour measurements in weight instead of volume? Many thanks in advance!
Isabel, we understand your frustration. We’ve actually been working on updating all our recipes with weights in addition to volume. It’s a slow process as we want to retest the recipes to ensure things are right. In the meantime, keep in mind that in general 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4 1/4 ounces or 120 grams. And if you want to scroll through all the recipes on our site that do include weights, you’ll find them here. Thanks for your patience.
This lemon pound cake looks delicious. One of my aunts, my mom’s sister, used to make a regular lemon cake when I was younger. Wish I would’ve gotten the recipe from her. I never thought of it through all these years. She passed away a few months ago, God bless her soul. This cake was also delicious. Now I have to buy a bundt pan and try this recipe. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Darelene, you are so very welcome. I’m so sorry for your loss. It’s incredible how tastes linger with us through the decades. Here’s hoping this lemon pound cake is sufficiently similar to the one your aunt baked so as to help you fondly reminisce.