Moist Lemon Pound Cake

The Perfect Cake

This simple and delicious Moist Lemon Pound Cake is the perfect go to cake for any event. You’re going to love this recipe.

It just feels right that this is the first cake recipe I publish on my blog since this was the first cake I ever made, and probably the first cake I ever ate! My grandma used to make this cake for everything – Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, birthdays… the list goes on. The flavor of this cake is light and delicious, but also subtle so you can have it for breakfast or dessert! You’re going to love the way the outside of this cake crisps up while the instead maintains so much moisture.

What’s really impressive about this cake is that it doesn’t need a glaze. It’s perfect by itself. But if you want a glaze feel free to add one. I recommend a lemon juice/granulated sugar glaze or a lemon frosting of butter and heavy whipping cream. I’ve put both on this cake before.

How to Make the Cake Pretty

The scariest part of a pound cake… making it look good. Just make sure you grease the pan. I use this cooking spray to get a really good coating of oil and flour. I spray the pan to death, then a little more. You want it to be COVERED. You also want to use a good quality pan, I use one like this. The size is also important because you don’t want the batter to overflow, yes it happens LOL.

Take the cake out of the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes before releasing it onto your cooling rack. Pat it a couple times with a fork, then cross your fingers and lift the pan up. Hopefully it comes out clean!

My favorite cake advice, use a food scale instead of measuring cups to measure ingredients. I hate having a million measuring spoons and cups dirty after baking all day. If you use the scale, you can go straight from container to container and skip all the extra mess. Trust me.

Ingredients

Unsalted butter – the butter is so important in a pound cake, but it’s crucial to make sure it has time to come to room temperature before using it. Try to let it sit out for at least an hour. Using margarine or a butter replacement with a higher water content will result in a much drier cake, while using vegetable oil or a butter replacement with a lower water content will result in a much moister cake. I think butter is the perfect middle ground to provide both moisture and flavor.

Sugar – no secrets here, just a regular granulated sugar.

Eggs – you also want to make sure your eggs come to room temperature, sometimes I’ll soak them in water if I’m running low on time.

Baking soda – baking soda is your leavening agent in this recipe, which is why we’re adding buttermilk.

Buttermilk – I like to use milk mixed with lemon juice to curdle it (whole milk is great but any milk works). If you don’t want to squeeze lemons, just use buttermilk. I’ll juice a lemon and fill the rest of my measuring cup up with the amount of milk. The baking soda/buttermilk reaction is going to help make this cake so moist.

Flour – all purpose flour will give you the crispy crumb on the outside of your pound cake, if you want more of a bundt cake, try using cake flour (which is just all purpose flour mixed with corn starch)

Salt – salt is key in any dessert! Use unsalted butter so you’re in control of how much salt you use. Salt actually helps your desserts taste sweeter.

Extracts (lemon and vanilla) – for flavor of course!

Optional lemon zest – the lemon flavor in this cake is very subtle, if you want to taste more lemon flavor, you can massage lemon zest into the sugar before mixing with the butter. This will help the oils mix before beating the rest of the ingredients in.

How to Make the Cake Allergen Friendly

I have made this cake 3 different ways – exactly how it’s written here (my favorite), gluten free, and dairy free. I only make substitutions in my desserts for allergies, but that’s a story for a different post.

To make the cake gluten-free, I like to use this flour. This is my go-to gluten free flour. It’s a good mix of different flour alternatives and corn starch, the corn starch really helps keep the cake light. Some gluten-free desserts can start to get dense with typical flour alternatives.

To make this cake dairy free, I use Crisco instead of butter, and oat milk mixed with lemon juice instead of buttermilk.

If you try any other substitutions, tell me about them on my instagram or in the comments below!

Moist Lemon Pound Cake

An easy to make, delicious, classic lemon pound cake

5 from 9 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 55 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 1.5 cups unsalted butter room temperature
• 2.5 cups sugar
• 5 eggs room temperature
• 1 cup butter milk (or milk with lemon juice, see notes) room temperature
• 3.5 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2.5 tbsp lemon extract

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 325^oF. Prepare a 12-cup bundt pan.
• In a medium size bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
• In a bowl of an electric mixture, mix butter and sugar on high speed for 3-5 minutes with a paddle attachment.
• When mix is fluffy and light, lower the mixer speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk, starting and ending with the dry.
• Scrape the sides of the bowl, add in the vanilla and lemon extracts, and give one last mix until incorporated.
• Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake for 55-59 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.

Notes

You can make your own buttermilk by juicing a lemon and replacing the rest of the cup with regular milk.

 

Keyword delicious, easy, lemon, moist, pound cake, simple

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