Dense, buttery pound cake gets a lemon lift in this bright and cheery citrus version. Iced lemon pound cake is super moist and bursting with the flavors of fresh lemon, creamy butter, and sweet vanilla. A creamy lemon icing that sets on top is the only decorating this small-yet-stunning cake requires.
One reader, Laurie, says: “I’ve never made pound cake before but this turned out very well. It was moist and delicious. It took 50 minutes to bake and I’m glad you mentioned that a couple of moist crumbs on a toothpick is ok, otherwise I may have left it in the oven longer and it may have been a bit dry. I used the zest of 1 1/2 lemons as suggested as I love lemon. I’m making another one today! ★★★★★“
Here’s exactly what you need to make when it’s citrus season: grapefruit Greek yogurt cake.
But if grapefruit isn’t your ideal choice, iced lemon pound cake is another home run. I originally published this dessert recipe on my website in 2017 and I make it at least once every winter season. Imagine a coffee shop lemon loaf, but with a tighter crumb and with supremely fresh flavor you only get from homemade. (Nothing compares!)
Do you enjoy pound cake? My favorite is this cream cheese pound cake, which has an upgraded flavor, tight and dense crumb, and remains wonderfully buttery and soft. Brown butter pound cake has a similar texture and comes with the addition of brown butter flavor. Nutella swirl pound cake has the classic pound cake crumb with defined Nutella swirls throughout. Point being—I love adding flair and flavor to pound cake, and lemon is always a lovely choice.
By the way, if you’ve tried the lemon loaf recipe in my cookbook Sally’s Baking Addiction, you’ll appreciate today’s recipe, too. The cookbook variation is a lighter-crumbed quick bread—soft and airy like birthday cake, but with big and bright lemon flavor that hits as soon as you take the first bite.
The Exact Texture of This Lemon Pound Cake
Today’s recipe has the same wake-up-your-tastebuds flavor as my cookbook variation, but the texture is a little different. It is:
- Unapologetically moist
- Caramelized around the edges
- Dense and satisfying without tasting heavy
- Super rich and buttery
- Extra smooth with a velvety crumb
Best Ingredients to Use & Why I Don’t Recommend Substitutions
You need just 9 ingredients in the lemon pound cake batter. With so few ingredients, it’s best to stick to the recipe because each has an important job. I’ve tried my hand at many variations, and keep coming back to this recipe because of its careful ratio of ingredients. I don’t recommend straying.
Dry Ingredients: You need all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. The amount of flour isn’t a misprint. You really only need 1.5 cups, or 188g. Somehow, it just works!
Wet Ingredients: Grab your room-temperature butter and sugar, then you’ll need eggs, sour cream for moisture (it also keeps the crumb a bit light), vanilla extract, and lemon zest + juice.
Helpful Tip: You need lemon zest and juice and it’s easiest to zest the lemon before juicing it. Here’s the citrus zester and the citrus juicer I use if you need recommendations.
Expect a Thick Lemon Pound Cake Batter
This is a thick batter. Unlike vanilla cake or chocolate cake, there’s no milk to thin things out. The only real liquid is from the lemon juice, and there isn’t too much of it. Pound cakes do not typically include liquid besides eggs. (If you consider those liquid!)
You can bake this in a 9×5-inch loaf pan, but lately I have been using my 1-lb. 8×4-inch loaf pan. It yields a taller loaf, and needs a little extra bake time. I include instructions for both pans in the recipe below. If all you have is a 9×5-inch loaf pan, which is what you use for banana bread and pumpkin bread, you can use it, but expect the bread to be a little shorter than pictured.
Spread the batter into the greased loaf pan. There isn’t much pouring involved… more of a spoon-and-spread situation here!
Lemon Icing That Sets
I believe the saying goes… when life hands you lemons, make lemonade glaze. The icing on top of the pound cake adds a whole other level of lemon flavor. It’s thick and sets after a couple hours, producing a sweet and zingy layer you’ll want to save for last. You need heavy cream (or half-and-half or milk), lemon juice, and confectioners’ sugar.
Feel free to add candied lemons on the top for presentation, like I do with lemon poppy seed bread.
This recipe is too small for a Bundt pan. In you want a larger lemon pound cake in a Bundt pan, here are 2 options: (1) Double the recipe, but use 3/4 cup (180g) of sour cream to ensure there is enough moisture. The rest of the ingredients are simply doubled. Follow the same baking time and temperature from my cream cheese pound cake. And (2) Use my lemon poppy seed Bundt cake recipe, and feel free to skip the poppy seeds.
Absolutely. You can fold 1 cup (about 140g) of fresh blueberries into the batter. I try to avoid frozen blueberries because they turn the batter and cake grayish blue, but feel free to use them if that’s all you have. No need to coat them with flour before folding in, but feel free to do so if you’d like. This batter is quite thick, so they don’t really sink.
Iced Lemon Pound Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
- Yield: serves 8-10
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Dense, buttery pound cake gets a lemon lift in this bright and cheery citrus version. Iced lemon pound cake is super moist and bursting with the flavors of fresh lemon, creamy butter, and sweet vanilla. A creamy lemon icing that sets on top is the only decorating this small-yet-stunning cake requires.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60g) sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons (22ml) lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) heavy cream or milk (heavy cream produces a thick icing as pictured)
Instructions
- Lower the oven rack to the lower-third position and preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease an 8×4-inch loaf pan (like this one or this one) with nonstick spray. Or you can use a 9×5-inch loaf pan for a shorter loaf.
- Make the cake: Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on high speed in a large bowl until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat on high speed for 2 minutes until creamed. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) With the mixer running on low speed, add the eggs one at a time. Once the last egg is completely mixed in, stop the mixer. Add the sour cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla extract, then beat on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. The mixture may look curdled as a result of the varying textures combining. This is normal and the batter will come together when you add the dry ingredients in the next step.
- With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients just until combined. If needed, run a whisk through the batter a few times to rid any large lumps. Avoid over-mixing. Batter is very thick.
- Spoon/spread the batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 55-65 minutes if you used an 8×4-inch pan and 45-60 minutes if you used a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Tent the cake with aluminum foil halfway through baking to prevent the top from over-browning. Pound cakes are dense and take awhile to bake in the oven. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours and don’t be alarmed if yours is taking longer. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out *mostly* clean. A couple moist crumbs are OK.
- Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack. Allow cake to cool in the pan on the wire rack for 1 hour, then carefully remove the slightly warm cake from the pan. Let it continue cooling on a wire rack or on a serving plate/platter. You can add the icing while the cake is still warm or wait for it to cool.
- Make the icing: Whisk all of the icing ingredients together and pour over cake. Serve immediately or wait until the cake cools completely, which promises neater slices.
- Cover and store leftover cake for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 1 week in the refrigerator.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the pound cake ahead of time by freezing it. (I suggest icing it right before serving, so freeze it without the icing.) Bake it, cool it, then wrap it in a layer of plastic wrap and then a layer of aluminum foil. Freeze the loaf for up to 3 months. Allow the cake to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before topping with icing and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8×4-inch Loaf Pan (like this one or this one) or 9×5-inch Loaf Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cooling Rack | Citrus Juicer | Citrus Zester
- Sour Cream: If you don’t have sour cream, you can use plain yogurt or dairy/nondairy milk instead. If using milk, your pound cake won’t have a super tight crumb that is signature to pound cakes. Instead, the cake will have a lighter and cakier texture. For best results, I recommend full-fat sour cream.
- Bundt Pan: Here are 2 options for making a lemon Bundt pound cake in a Bundt pan. (1) Double this recipe, but use 3/4 cup (180g) of sour cream. If you were doubling the recipe, you would use 1/2 cup but make sure you increase to 3/4 cup for added moisture. The rest of the ingredients are simply doubled. Spoon/spread into a generously greased 10–12-cup Bundt pan. Follow the baking time and temperature from my cream cheese pound cake. (2) Use my lemon poppy seed Bundt cake recipe. Feel free to leave out the poppy seeds. That cake has a lighter texture and isn’t quite as heavy as pound cake.
- Can I Add Blueberries? Yes, absolutely. You can fold 1 cup (about 140g) of fresh blueberries into the batter after it comes together. I strongly recommend fresh blueberries, as frozen blueberries can turn the batter and finished cake a grayish blue. Keeping that in mind, you can use them if you’d like. I have better luck with fresh.
Reader Comments and Reviews
This was a bust for me unfortunately. It took over 60 minutes to bake but still came out undercooked in a few places (toothpick came out clean and it sprung back when touched, so I thought it was done). It also sank down a lot and the texture was not appealing. I used new baking powder and followed the instructions for minutes of beating the butter and sugar. I didn’t run my mixer very long after adding the dry ingredients, but it did feel like it took a bit longer than expected to smooth out after a lot of curdling in the wet ingredients. So maybe that was my issue? Will likely try a different recipe next time.
Hi Sally , the cake tasted delicious however I’m wondering if I could multiply the recipe 1.5 x to make the cake a bit taller , I used a 9.5 x 5 inch loaf tin .Thank you
Hi Aneta, we haven’t tested that but don’t see why not. Ket us know if you give it a try!
HUGE thanks for this recipe – I baked it twice in the last two days, with some yoghurt substituted for the sour cream the second time as I didn’t have enough, and both sets of recipients raved about the resulting cake! It has a very soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture and intense lemon flavour, that’s the sour cream/yoghurt and lemon juice doing it.
I only had crystallised sugar and not granulated though, so I powdered the sugar in my stand mixer before creaming the butter and sugar together, first with a spatula and then my electric whisk – as far as I can tell, the texture wasn’t affected.
Love love love when I find a recipe that fills a craving. Followed this recipe exactly and cake came out beautifully. Wish I read to the bottom of the hints to add more lemon zest- the more tart the better for me.
Sally your recipes never disappoint and I’m grateful for your tried, tested and true recipes. Thank you!!
This was so delicious! My husband was craving something lemony, so I made this, with some homegrown lemons.
I didn’t have any sour cream, so I added a 1/2 tsp of lemon juice to a 1/4 cup measure and filled the rest with heavy cream and mixed together. I cannot stop raving about texture, it’s so delicate and perfect with a cup of tea. Thank you Sally for another winner!
Has anyone tried this in the disposable cardboard pans? They measure : 6-Inches x 2.5-Inches x 2-Inches. I’m hoping to make a large quantity for a bake sale and am concerned about bake time and how much to fill pans.
Hi Sandra! You can bake this as mini loaves but mini pans vary greatly in size, so how many you will get from one recipe and the exact bake time will depend on your exact pans. Keep close eye on them and use a toothpick to check for doneness. Enjoy!
Sandra – I’ve baked with cardboard pans before, in my experience they take longer to bake than metal pans of the same size, probably because of the lack of heat conducting that the metal would provide.
This is my first time baking a pound cake and it was a hit! I am baking the second one now, 2 days later lol . I would love to know how you tent the cake. I have trouble with it.
Hi Suzanne, so glad to hear you’ve been enjoying this recipe! You can loosely cover the pan with foil in order to prevent over baking. Make sure it is loose so that the bread can continue to rise.
Hello! Have you ever baked this on a sheet pan? I know to modify the baking time, but wondering if you’ve done it this way? Thank you in advance for your input!
Hi Michele! We haven’t tested this pound cake recipe in a sheet pan. You may enjoy this lemon cake recipe instead – see recipe notes for instructions on baking it in a 9×13. Enjoy!
Awesome recipe! I’ve never made pound cake before but this turned out very well. I followed through the detailed instructions and tips. It was moist and delicious. My family loves it! However, is there any way to increase the taste of lemon a little more? I did used more than a lemon for lemon zest.
Hi Cherry, we’re so glad your family enjoyed this iced lemon pound cake! For more lemon flavor, you can increase the lemon zest as you mention or even try adding a small amount of lemon extract to the mix.
Sally you never disappoint! I’ve tried so many pound cake recipes and this one turned out perfect! My search ends here ❤️
Hey! Could I add blueberries to this? If so, how much? Of course I’d toss in flour first.
Hi Cassidy, blueberries would be a fantastic addition– we would stir in about 1 cup.
Hi Sally! My loaf came out pretty good but with quite a few cracks on the top (this happens with every loaf I ever bake!). It’s baked fine but what can I do to prevent the big cracks in the top in the future?
Also, since I only used 1 lemon worth of zest in the cake, could I add lemon zest to the glaze to make it extra lemony?
Thanks!
Hi Kate! Quick breads are meant to crack on top! It’s the air being released from the bread as it bakes. You can add zest to the glaze if desired. Enjoy!
yummy I will make this again thanks
Absolutely adore this recipe. My friends entirely enjoyed this cake as well!
I was wondering if this recipe could perhaps be adapted to use with a mini muffin pan (i.e. more akin to lemon blossoms)?
Thank you for your delicious recipes!!
Hi Ashley! We haven’t tested this recipe in a mini muffin pan, but let us know if you give it a go. We’d love to hear how they turn out. We’re so glad this recipe is a hit for you!
I have a small bundt pan. Can I use the recipe as it is in that pan?
Hi Smita! It depends on how big/small your Bundt pan is. Our cake pan sizes and conversions guide will be helpful to scale this recipe for your needs!
Hi Sally! I love your recipes and usually have great success because your directions are so thorough. I made this recipe 3x in the past week and it was always underbaked. Light color with golden edges and a skewer came out clean, but then the cakes always sunk as they cooled and became too stodgy. I will admit that I played with the baking times and cake shape (two 7in layers first round, full bundt second round, and a dozen mini bundts third round). Baking powder isn’t expired and oven heating coil was just replaced. Please help me figure out what I am doing wrong.
Side note, the flavor of this cake is seriously amazing! Which is all my friends and family care about, but I want a perfect pound cake crumb!
Hi Lauren! Happy to help troubleshoot. The different size cake pans can be tricky, as each will have a different bake time. In particular, we’ve found that the cake will be very dense and squat if baked in round pans. When checking for doneness with a toothpick, make sure it is reaching far enough into the loaf to ensure the bottom is baked through — note that a few light crumbs are okay otherwise you could risk over baking it. In the future, if you find it browning too soon on the edges before the middle is baked, you can try reducing your temperature by 25 degrees, increasing the bake time, and lightly tenting the edges with foil to prevent burning. Hopefully this helps for next time, and remember that pound cakes do have tighter and denser crumbs than traditional loaves or cakes 🙂
I had the same issue tonight. I tested the baking powder to be sure it was fresh ( and it is). So I wonder if it could be that between the sour cream and the lemon juice there is too much acidity and needs to be balance with some baking soda perhaps?!?
It was amazing!! Thank you!!
HI Sally
I’m a fairly experienced home baker. I’m made this cake over the weekend. It had a really good flavor and texture – however it was kind of flat in appearance. Just wonder if it needed a bit more leavening or any other suggestions? I baked it in a light colored aluminum 9X5. (I don’t have glass.)
Hi Andi! Was your baking powder fresh? This pound cake doesn’t have a super high dome, but it may come out a bit flat if your baking powder isn’t fresh — we find it starts to lose power after about 3 months. Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try!
Hi Sally I guess I should have read all your tips/notes prior to making this pound cake. I do like a good lemony flavor but didn’t see the tip about adding extra zest until after my cake was in the oven. ☹️ Another question I had is you mention lowering your oven rack to the lower 1/3 of the oven. My 3 oven rack from the bottom puts the cake pretty center in my oven? After reading the comment about somebody’s edge is burning I questioned if my cake was going to be too high in the oven so I put it down on the second to the bottom rack could you please clarify the positioning in the oven where the cake should be cooked? Example bottom quarter of the oven middle of the oven etc. baking now, hope all goes well as this is being served to my daughter for her birthday per her request & a group of ladies at work this afternoon.
Hi Christi! The bottom third of the oven is what you’re looking for. Not on the bottom but near it. Hope the cake is a hit!
This recipe was just plain awesome. Thanks much, Sally! Finally I have a pound cake that I enjoy so much done right at home ☺ so delicious even without the icing!
Can I modify the recipe to fit an 8×4 loaf pan?
Absolutely. The bake time will be a few minutes longer, but use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I’ve never made pound cake before but this turned out very well. It was moist and delicious. It took 50 minutes to bake and I’m glad you mentioned that a couple of moist crumbs on a toothpick is ok, otherwise I may have left it in the oven longer and it may have been a bit dry. I used the zest of 1 1/2 lemons as suggested as I love lemon. I’m making another one today!
I’ve not yet tried this recipe, but plan to…I’m wondering if I could make this in a muffin top pan – I’ve made other pound cake recipes in the muffin top pan and they came out fine, just baked them at 325 F for longer and they were exactly fine, but not as moist as I’d like…so I’m wondering if I should use the recipe here as is with the sour cream or add extra sour cream if baking in the muffin top pan – fyi, the muffin top pan is approximately 4″ wide by 1/2″ deep and I fill them using 1/3 cup batter, no matter what I’m baking, the 1/3rd cup batter seems to be max fill with no overflow. PS – I’ve made your Lemon Blueberry layer cake, Blueberry Bread and Strawberry Bread several times and they are always absolutely amazing! Love your recipes! I don’t often find trustworthy recipes online and tend to be more of a traditionalist, trusting in my cook books rather than other peoples’ recipes, but yours are golden, 100% every time!
Hi Jena! We haven’t tested this recipe in muffin top pans, but let us know if you give it a go. We’d love to hear how they turn out. Thank you so much for making our recipes!
My grandmother adores lemon and ginger. Besides adding some finely chopped crystallized ginger on top, do you think I could put some (or ground ginger?) in the cake as well? I’m not sure how much to use so it doesn’t overwhelm the lemon. Thanks!
Hi Alice, sounds like a delicious idea. You can certainly try adding some ground ginger into the batter — we’d recommend starting small (1/4 teaspoon – 1/2 teaspoon or so), and then adjusting as needed the next time. If your grandmother loves that combination, she might also enjoy our lemon ginger cookies!
Hi Sally. Would this be good served with your strawberry compote (from your brown butter pound cake recipe?) Maybe if I leave out the icing so it’s not too sweet? I’ve made both recipes before and they’re so good!
Thanks 🙂
Definitely! We would love to hear what you think of the combination, Natasha. Enjoy!
Hello Sally,
If I use cake flour, how much would I need to use instead of all purpose flour?
Hi Samoy, use the same amount of cake flour for a slightly lighter texture. Enjoy!
Hi Sally, this recipe is really helping me. I love this lemon pound cake. For the glaze, can the heavy cream or milk be optional?
Absolutely wonderful. Easy and yummy. My brother in law and sister in law sent us some Meyer lemons from their tree in California. I decided to get baking with all those lemons!
So disappointed. It was wet when checked for so long, then checked when there were still crumbs on the toothpick and it was yellow on top, pretty and burnt on the button and sides. I’ll put it in the trifle and scrap off the tough bottom and sides. I’ll try again but I didn’t even feel it had a very noticeable lemon taste. And no, I don’t have Covid nose. If anyone has a tip on how to make this cake work flawlessly I’d love to hear from you. I used room temp, and used Ina Garden’s tips on putting flour in. This was extremely thick batter and I even used more sour cream than called for. Not the first time I’ve had a problem with SBA recipes. So beautiful but yeesh.
Hi there, I know it’s disappointing when a dessert doesn’t come out right! All I can tell you is that I just made it and it turned out perfectly in texture and lemon flavor. The advice I would give is read Sally’s directions several times she gives very precise and specific information, I always read things several times and the times things didn’t turn out it’s because I missed some tiny detail. Could also be your oven or the loaf pan, I cooked mine for 25 minutes ( in an oven that tends to be over heated) in a 11×7 pan and like I said it was great. Hope this helps!
Hi Sally
I’m going to be making this cake in a bundt pan. Your notes say to double everything other than the sour cream. Does the recipe really call for 4 sticks of butter? I’ve seen most bundt pound cake recipes call for up to 3 sticks of butter, but I’ve never seen 4 before.
Thanks
Hi Steph, correct — we find this recipe works best in Bundt cake form by doubling the ingredients (except the 3/4 cup of sour cream), so four sticks of butter. Let us know if you give it a try!
Would this be suggested as well in a mini Bundt pan ?
Hi Keith, you wouldn’t have to double the recipe for mini Bundt pans.
This is the lemon cake I’ve been dreaming of and searching for the right recipe for years. Flavorful and moist, it was absolutely delicious. I doubled the recipe and followed Sally’s instructions for baking a bundt cake. (Ps. you can buy a gorgeous Nordic ware bundt tin at Costco for $19)
did you double the butter as well?
One word:
✨FABULOUS ✨