How do you make Lemon Pound Cake?

This easy lemon pound cake is ultra-buttery, moist and bursting with lemon flavor. This recipe uses lemon juice as well as zest of lemon to give those rich flavors. It is also covered with thick layer of lemon glaze. This is my to go slice of cake with hot cup of coffee.

I ate lemon pound cake at Starbucks first and decided to make exactly same cake with same flavors. I tried couple of online recipes and found out that the taste is different than that of Starbucks. Finally, I found out that you have to use lemon juice, zest of lemon and lemon glaze.

Why is it called pound cake?

Traditionally pound cake is made up of all the ingredients in a quantity of pound. i.e., typical pound cake contains pound of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. These cakes are baked either in loaf pan or bundt pan and it is covered with either powdered sugar or with a thick coat of icing.

I have made some variations in this recipe of lemon pound cake such as added baking powder, lemon juice and zest of lemon. We are covering this lemon pound cake with lemon thick coating of lemon glaze.

You will find complete tutorial below to make this lemon pound cake soft, moist every time you make one. Trust me, you will never buy store bought cake after you make this one.

List of ingredients and Importance of each ingredient

• Butter - Always use good quality plain butter to have that rich and buttery flavor. Stay away from oil or margarine or flavored butter. I have used salted butter in this recipe as little bit of salt always enhances the flavor. If you are using unsalted butter then add pinch of salt in dry ingredients.

• Sugar - Please stay away from powdered sugar as it has impurities in it. Always use super fine white sugar. I have not tried this recipe with brown sugar yet. Once I try, I will update the post.

• Eggs - Bring your eggs to room temperature before starting to make cake. If you forget to take your eggs out then, take a bowl of hot water and put your eggs in it for 4-5 mins and you are good to go. It is important to use room temperature eggs so that it mixes with rest of the ingredients properly and there will be no overmixing.

• Flour - I like to use all-purpose flour for this recipe because it is easily available. You can also use cake flour. This is lighter than all-purpose flour and will also rise more compare to all-purpose flour with more trend crumb. But there is a possibility that cake may taste little dry. If cake flour is not easily available then substitute 2 tsp of all-purpose flour with 2 tsp of corn flour.

• Baking Powder - This is required to rise cake properly and evenly.

• Lemon Juice - I always use freshly squeezed lemon juice whenever it comes to any recipe where lemon juice is involved. Please stay away from store bought bottled lemon juice.

• Zest of lemon - This adds extra lemon flavor to our lemon pound cake.

• Sour Cream - This adds extra moisture to our lemon pound cake. This also reacts with baking powder and helps the cake to rise.

Equipments required to make this

1. Stand mixer
2. Weighing scale
3. Measuring cups
4. Measuring spoons
5. Loaf Pan

Step by step recipe (with images) to make lemon pound cake recipe

1. Sift dry ingredients and keep it aside.
2. Mix milk and lemon juice and keep it aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar.

4. Add lemon zest, vanilla. Beat just for few seconds.

5. Add eggs, one at a time.

6. Alternate dry ingredients with milk and lemon juice mixture.

7. Pour in prepared loaf pan.

8. Bake at 350F(180c) for 45-55 minutes.

9. Decorate with lemon glaze.

Pro tips to make best lemon pound cake

• Measure Ingredients - Please make sure to properly measure before starting the recipe. To make the perfect lemon pound cake recipe each time, I strongly recommend to use weighing scale to measure your ingredients.
• Do not overmix - Beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. This will take 3-4 minute on medium speed in stand mixer. But when you add eggs, just mix it until it is disappeared. When adding our flour, it is best to mix it using fold method (by hand using spatula). If you are using stand mixer, mix it on lowest speed. Overmixing will make your cake dense.
• Preheat Oven - Preheat the oven for at least 10-15 minutes so that it is guaranteed that oven temperature is stable.
• Use Correct Pan - It is very important to use aluminum pan. I personally use this pan whenever I am baking a cake. If you use glass pan or dark metal pan then baking till will be less.
• Prepare pan - Always prepare your pan with butter and flour method or covering the pan with parchment paper.

Video representation of the recipe

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why did my lemon cake fall? - There can be two main reasons for this. First, if you have added extra baking powder and second reason can be overbeating when you add eggs. This will make the cake to rise first and then collapse after baking.

• How do you make lemon cake soft and moist? -This recipe makes a perfect soft and moist lemon pound cake. It has perfect quantity of eggs and sour cream. If you want moister, try replacing egg with 2 egg yolks.

• How can we store the lemon pound cake? - This can be kept at room temperature for 3 days and up to one week in refrigerator if keep in air tight container. We can also store this in freezer. Just cover it with aluminum foil. Bring it room temperature by keeping overnight in refrigerator before serving it with topping.

• What can we combine with this cake? - This is so versatile cake which goes well with many items. I have mentioned some of them here:

1. This goes absolutely perfect when eaten with a hot cup of coffee. This is my favorite.
2. You can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and enjoy this as a dessert.
3. You can also add some nutella or chocolate sauce. This will balance the taste as lemon pound cake is tangy and nutella is sweet.
4. One more combination to make it balanced flavors is put dollop pf whipped cream and some diced berries.

• Why is my lemon pound cake dry? - Overbaking is the main cause of cake being dry. Make sure to weigh your ingredients, check the doneness before actual baking time.

Request

If you have made this recipe, please tag me on Instagram while sharing your pic or email me your pic. If you have any questions, please write down in comment below.