Lemon Pound Cake

You can't beat a slice of homemade Lemon Pound Cake, with it's fine crumb and velvety melt-in-your-mouth texture.

If you are always on the lookout for new pound cake recipes to try, you are going to LOVE today's cake!

Why we Love it

Buttermilk: We use full fat. The acidity softens the strands of gluten, making for a more tender, soft crumb! The acidity of the fresh lemon juice in the recipe helps with this also!

Cake Flour: We love to use cake flour in our cake recipes as it has a low protein content (lower than all purpose flour), resulting in a softer cake.

Lemon Extract Although we are using fresh lemon juice and lemon zest, some of the lemon flavor tends to bake out. Lemon extract is the solution for this! (Lemon baking emulsion is fine also).

Make sure to smell the lemon extract before using- it can go rancid even before it has reached the expiration date. It should smell lemony!

Unsalted Butter: Readers often ask us why we use unsalted butter. It allows us to have control over the amount of salt that we are putting into the recipe. (This recipe calls for ½ teaspoon salt). If you decide to use salted butter, I would omit the salt in the recipe.

How to Make Lemon Pound Cake

You can find the full, printable recipe card for this pound cake further down in this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

• Grease and flour a tube pan or bundt pan. (Ours was 10 inches across.) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, salt, and baking powder for 30 seconds to combine. Set aside for later.

• Using an electric mixer, cream the softened unsalted butter (with the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer) on medium speed until smooth.

• Gradually add the sugar and mix until lightened in color and fluffy 3 to 5 minutes.

• Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk blends in.

• In a measuring cup or bowl, combine the buttermilk, lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon zest.

• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. We do three additions of the flour mixture and two of the buttermilk mixture. Mix just until incorporated.

• Scoop/spoon the lemon pound cake batter into a prepared tube pan. Use the back of a spoon to smooth over the top to level.

• Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (or with just a few crumbs attached.) Baking times can vary and so peek in as it approaches the 1 hour mark. If the top of the cake begins to get too dark, cover loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.

• This recipe makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
• Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto serving plate.

Easy Lemon Glaze

The sweetness of the cake is perfectly balanced with the tartness of the simple lemon glaze (a simple combination of powdered sugar, milk, and lemon extract).

I prepared a thicker glaze than usual so that it could be used for stenciling.

Stenciling

We normally apply the sugar glaze as a drip, but today we made it slightly thicken by adding just a bit more powdered sugar. Then, I held a plastic stencil on the side of the cake and spread the glaze very thinly over it.

I had to do this bit by bit, and the pound cake has slanted sides, and so my stenciling isn't perfect-- definitely more of a rustic effect! :0) But I love how it came out.

We have used a similar stencil on our whipping cream pound cake (although for that cake we used a half batch of buttercream rather than a sugar glaze). Try to apply the glaze very thinly for the cleanest look.

Next, I spread some additional glaze on top of the cake with my offset spatula. This is a very sweet glaze and so I didn't apply it too thick.

The glaze is sweet, but on the individual slices, it is perfect- not overpowering at all.

We used a microplane to add a bit of lemon zest to the top of the cake! (A fine grater works well too!)

We also added thinly sliced lemons to the top of the cake.

Recipe FAQs

Favorite Lemon Cakes, Frostings, and Fillings

In addition to today's Lemon Pound Cake recipe, we've made many more favorite lemon cakes, fillings, and frostings over the years! Don't miss these other favorites!

Among our most popular lemon cakes are our Lemon Cake from scratch, Lemon Cheesecake Cake, Lemonade Cake (pound cake), and Lemon Coconut Cake. Also, if you need a delicious lemon filling, we highly recommend homemade lemon curd!

More Pound Cake Recipes!

If you love pound cakes like we do, you'll want as many go-to pound cake recipes as possible! If you're craving classic pound cake, double chocolate pound cake, strawberry pound cake, and more- we've got you covered!

Enjoy the Recipe

Thanks so much for stopping by. Don't miss our full Cake Recipes section as well as our favorite cakes from scratch and cake mix recipes! We have so many great cakes to share with you.

**This recipe was updated in July 2023 to include buttermilk, cake flour, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

Lemon Pound Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist, tender Lemon Pound Cake has a velvety soft texture, fine crumb, and great lemon flavor!

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr 1 minute min

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Equipment

• ▢
  Stencil Optional

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened 339 g unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 3 cups (600g) sugar
• ▢ 5 large eggs, room temperature (you can warm them in a bowl of warm water if you are in a hurry)
• ▢ 3 cups (342g) cake flour (not self rising)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (2g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ Zest of 2 Lemons approximately 2 Tablespoons
• ▢ 2 ½ teaspoons Lemon Extract 10g- We used McCormick- See Notes Below
• ▢ 3 Tablespoons (42g) Lemon Juice (approximate amount of juice in one lemon)
• ▢ 1 cup (235g) Buttermilk

For the Lemon Glaze

• ▢ 2 cups powdered sugar sifted
• ▢ ½ teaspoon lemon extract you could also use lemon juice
• ▢ Pinch of salt
• ▢ Milk to reach desired consistency. (Start with 1-2 teaspoons and increase a teaspoon at a time. Ours was fairly thick because we used it with a stencil. But a thinner glaze can be piped as a drip, or drizzled over the cake.)

Garnish

• ▢ Lemon slices

Instructions

• Grease and flour a tube pan or bundt pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, salt, and baking powder for 30 seconds to combine. Set aside for later.
• Cream the softened butter with the paddle attachment in your mixer on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix until lightened in color and fluffy 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk blends in.
• Add the buttermilk, lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon zest to a measuring cup or bowl.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. We do three additions of the flour mixture and two of the buttermilk mixture. Mix just until blended.
• Scoop/spoon the batter into a prepared tube pan. Use the back of a spoon to smooth over the top to level.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (or with just a few crumbs attached.) Baking times can vary and so peek in as it approaches the 1 hour mark. If the top of the cake begins to get too dark, cover loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.
• This recipe makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
• Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto serving plate.

For the Easy Lemon Glaze

• Combine sugar, extract, and salt in a bowl and stir until smooth.
• Adjust consistency to your liking. If using a stencil, you'll want a thicker (but spreadable) consistency that doesn't run . If you are applying a drip or drizzle, it will be slightly softer (additional milk in small amounts).

Notes

Freezing: This cake can be wrapped and frozen for up to three months! Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, followed by foil. To thaw, place in the refrigerator the night before, still wrapped. Move to room temperature the next morning. 

Substitution for Cake Flour: If you have no cake flour, here is a substitution: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.

Lemon Extract There are many brands of Lemon Extract- we use McCormick most often. Make sure that you smell the extract before using as sometimes it can go bad. It should smell lemony ;0)

Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to a measuring cup. To that, add milk to the 1 cup mark. Stir and allow to sit for a minute or two to thicken.

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