Glazed Lemon Pound Cake
This Glazed Lemon Pound Cake definitely brightened the day. There’s something about a lemon dessert that provides a little sunshine and a lot of deliciousness.
Plus a group of my favorite bloggers is sharing some incredible citrus recipes, like this moist lemon cake recipe, that you’ll want to add to your menu. Scroll down to see some scrumptious lemon, orange, and lime-flavored dishes.
Why You Must Make
- Citrus recipes are the perfect holdover until summer arrives with its abundance of fresh produce. It’s only fitting that I recommend this lovely, dense and fine-crumbed lemon pound cake!
- A Lemon Loaf Cake recipe is smaller than a full-sized Bundt cake, so it will satisfy your cravings without increasing your pants size! But check out this Lemon Bundt Cake if you need a bigger version.
- It’s a lovely dessert with just its lemon glaze, but can be jazzed up with sliced, macerated strawberries, plump fresh raspberries or blueberries, and either a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
- You could also try warming a slice of cake in the microwave, as when it’s warm it gets all extra buttery and gooey. But don’t forget that a lemon glaze for cake is a simple way to keep the cake moist and gives a beautiful finishing touch!
Expert Tips
Pound cakes are dense with a fine crumb and there are a few things you should note before baking one.
- Start with room-temperature eggs and butter to ensure the ingredients incorporate as well as possible.
- PRO-Tip: If you forget to set out your eggs ahead of time, place them in a bowl of very warm (not boiling!) tap water for 15-20 minutes to get the chill off.
- Make sure the butter and sugar are creamed together well, so your pound cake will have a velvety texture.
- Add eggs one at a time and don’t over-mix as this will add air to the batter and alter the desired texture.
- Make sure to prep your pan well. If it’s a non-stick pan, just a coating of an oil and flour baking spray, like Baker’s Joy, works well. If not, I like to grease my pan with shortening, then dust with flour.
- Allow your cake to cool for about 10-15 minutes before removing it from the pan. This gives the crust time to cool and firm up, but not too long so that the cake sticks.
- Then cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may think the dense pound cake got its name because it is heavier than the ordinary cake. But the first pound cakes were made with a pound of eggs, a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, and a pound of flour. The name “pound cake” now makes sense, doesn’t it??
Adding lemon juice, zest, and/or lemon extract are great ways to add lemon flavor to cakes, cupcakes, and muffins. Dorie Greenspan’s method of rubbing lemon zest and sugar together with your fingers helps release the lemon oil from the zest.
In the process, the sugar absorbs the lemon oil. Use this lemon-infused sugar in your recipe.
You May Also Like:
- Orange Frosty from Creative Culinary
- Best Lemon Bars
- Glazed Lemon Tea Scones
- Strawberry Lemon Tart
- Lemon Bar Cheesecake
- Check out all my Best Cake Recipes
Glazed Lemon Pound Cake
A dense, delicious lemon loaf with a simple lemon glaze.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Glaze:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line the bottom of a large loaf pan (1 pound loaf pan or approximately 9 x 5 x 2 1/2-inches) with parchment paper and set aside.
- Add the sugar and lemon zest into a large mixing bowl. Using your fingertips rub the sugar and zest together for a minute or two until the oils are released sugar smells fragrant (a trick I learned from Dorie Greenspan).
- Add the softened butter and beat until creamy and smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time and mix well in between each addition. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Note that mixture may appear curdled.
- Sift the dry ingredients on top of the egg/butter mixture and then gently fold until you have a smooth batter. Do not overmix.
- Spread the cake batter evenly into the prepared lpan. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature 325°. Continue baking for 35-60 more minutes (mine took another hour!).
- Remove from oven to a cooling rack. After 10-15 minutes, release from pan place upright on the cooling rack.
- Make the lemon glaze by combining the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring this mixture up to the boil and then decrease the heat to low and allow it to simmer for about 2-3 minutes until thick and syrupy.
- Using a toothpick poke holes all over the top and sides of the cake and brush the cake with the glaze.
- Cool to room temperature before serving. Wrap leftovers well in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
Notes
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1 sliceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 399Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 123mgSodium: 331mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 1gSugar: 35gProtein: 5g
53 Comments on “Glazed Lemon Pound Cake”
Is the sugar in the glaze, confectionery sugar? It doesn’t say but that’s what I thought it would be.
Hi, Linda, the glaze is a cooked mixture of plain granulated sugar and water. It’s cooked until it’s syrupy, then used as a glaze. You can always make a powdered sugar glaze, but it won’t be clear like the glaze I used. Hope this helps clarify. Hope you enjoy it!!
I tried this out today and everyone loved it. I halved everything. It’s easy, looks and smells great when finished and tasted great.
Thanks so much for letting me know, Adam!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Have a wonderful week.
I have attempted it twice, and there is no way to have a look looking/well performed cake.
It sunk in the middle in my 2 attempts. Looking around the web, one of the reasons for that problem is having fat dough. It may be true.
In this recipe we use 1 cup of butter (abou 220g) for 1 1/4 cups of flour (about 170g). It works successfully when I bake 1 : 1 formulas. I won’t try this recipe once more for sure.
I’m sorry this recipe didn’t work for you, Maria. It’s 1 cup butter to 1 1/2 cups flour and is a very tried and true recipe formula from Cook’s Illustrated. Here is another blogger who was successful with this same recipe formula: https://whatjessicabakednext.com/tag/cooks-illustrated-lemon-pound-cake/ (https://whatjessicabakednext.com/tag/cooks-illustrated-lemon-pound-cake/) I’m wondering if it needed more time in the oven? But it sounds like you’re an experienced baker, so that’s just a guess. Glad you were able to find a way to make it work for you.
Hi, Liz! Thanks for replying. In fact I got a delicious juicy cake, no matters the mixture was dense and has no milk! Can`t wait to keep baking your recipes 🙂 XOXO
Oh, I’m so glad, Maria! Thanks for reporting back! xo
This recipe has no milk or buttermilk… I am a novice baker, and I didn`t realize about this fact until the mixture was ready to be placed in the oven. Hope I have a delicious lemon cake, but I am not sure…
Hi, Maria,
Yes, this is more of a standard pound cake which has just butter, sugar, flour and some flavorings! Fingers crossed you will love this cake!
I made this for my friend’s baby shower and it was the first dessert gone! I served it with fresh berries and whipped cream!
I am making this today! I love lemon and pound cake going to use the blackberries from my bush to decorate it with real cream thanks Liz I love everything you make!