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
Would you see an issue with putting a layer of raspberry jam in between 2 layers of the batter?
Sounds delicious! We do something similar with this raspberry swirl pound cake recipe. Let us know if you try it here – should work just fine.
Wow!!!!
A family member requested an iced lemon pound cake. Since I trust your recipes, I went with your version. While the cake was good, the lemon flavor was subtle. Since we prefer a robust lemon zestiness, how much can I increase the lemon juice and zest to the point where we achieve that (without being obnoxious)? I made a lemon sauce to ladle over our cake slices, which gave us more lemony-ness. My cake baked in about 45 minutes in a dark pan in an oven that runs a tiny bit hot. You do need to tent it half-way through. Mine was flat on top, but tested done. I didn’t have the nice little rise you did (which makes your cake adorable). Is it possible to infuse this cake with a lemon syrup (as a poke cake)?
Hi Susan, you can absolutely increase the lemon zest to your liking. We don’t recommend increasing the lemon juice, though, since it will throw off the liquid to dry ingredient ratios. You can also feel free to add a lemon syrup after baking, similar to the glaze we use for this lemon poppy seed bread. Thanks for giving this one a try!
I doubled the recipe and made 6 mini loaves for neighbors for “Mother’s Day” gifts. Absolutely excellent! Thank you
I’m trying it this morning with half lemon and half orange zest and with half orange juice and half lemon juice.
Hope it’s a hit for you, Hannah!
Made this yesterday, following the recipe exactly, except used the zest of two lemons, chopped finally. This cake is fantastically delicious. It is for sure going to be made again and again.
Thank you Sally and team !
What steps should I follow to bake this at higher altitudes?
Hi AJ, we wish we could help, but we have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
I’m looking for a way I can creatively incorporate a little bit of Limoncello into this recipe; my family was given a bottle as a gift. I was thinking to add around a tsp into the glaze and drop the amount of lemon juice to account for it. Do you think I’d be alright adding a couple tsp into the batter as well?
Hi Daisy! You could replace some of the lemon juice in the cake as well, but it will make everything a bit sweeter.
Made this for a shared morning tea at work today. I reduced the sugar to 150g, increased the vanilla extract to 3 tsp, used 4x mixed grade eggs (didn’t have large), and used the icing as more of a simple syrup to soak into the cake, but added more zest and lemon juice.
It was very lemony, but in a really lovely way, and an absolute smash! I’ve made the fudgy brownie from this website before, and it was described as “delicious” but the review of the lemon cake was “on a different level”.
Safe to say I’ll definitely be making this one again!
Great flavor but my husband said his teeth hurt from all the sugar.
I’ll probably cut the sugar down for our tastes next time.
Trying this out! Would this work if I substituted butter with oil? I want to get the moist effect from the oil.
Hi Dana, oil is not suitable for this pound cake recipe since the base of the recipe is butter creamed with oil. If you really prefer to use oil, you can try substituting in the same amount of room temperature (solid) coconut oil for the butter, but you’ll lose the butter flavor.
A delicious and easy poundcake! I served it with sliced strawberries and vanilla ice cream. I did not make the icing. This is a keeper!
I’m eager to try this recipe. I just recently discovered lemon oil for baking. Would a small amount of lemon oil enhance the lemon flavor in this pound cake?
Hi Lynn, we haven’t tried that, but let us know how it turns out if you do!
This recipe is incredible. I tweaked a little and added lemon zest and a tiny bit of lemon extract to the icing. and it was fantastic. the pound cake is so tender and light. ive made it twice in the last 3 days
We’re so happy to hear this recipe was a hit for you, Alexis!
I made this for Easter lunch. It was delicious and a huge hit! I followed the instructions exactly and it turned out great!
My first try at a pound cake recipe. Was nervous since I was taking to a brunch but followed the steps exactly and this turned out amazing. Was a huge hit at thebrunch, thank you so much for the recipe!
i tried it but it came out too oily, like too much butter 🙁 i followed the measurements in grams. did i do something wrong?
Hi Kai! It will come out oily if the butter is too warm to begin – was it softened to proper room temperature? It should be cooler than many think!
Hi I’ve been making this loaf at least 15 times now. And as much as I love the flavor mine never is as tall as yours. It rises perfectly in the oven. Tooth pick clean but while cooling it kinda shrinks (doesn’t collapse and it’s perfect inside) but like I said it shrinks and becomes flat on top. What am I doing wrong?
I thought I’ve been over mixing but it happens even if I mix it shortly till combined.
Could you please let me know what may be the issue?
Hi Joana, could it be slightly under-baked? A cake will deflate if underbaked. Also make sure your baking powder is fresh.
Hi, I was curious if this would work as an orange pound cake? If not could you offer an orange bread recipe if you have one?
Hi August, yes, absolutely! Just swap the lemon for orange, and enjoy!
I make lots of Sally’s Baking Addiction cakes, but this pound cake was not my favorite. Lemon flavor was nice, but the texture was almost like cornbread. My husband loved it.
As a side note, I’ve made hundreds of pound cakes in my 70 years of baking and most have milk or buttermilk.
Easy and delicious!
I would like to try this but wondering if I can top it with a crumble ( like in your Apple muffin, no cinnamon off course). Would the baking time different?
Any recommendations, please?
Hi Eleonora, we would try the crumble topping (in the recipe Notes) from our blueberry muffin bread recipe. Let us know how it goes!
Great recipe! I made this as my birthday cake, and it was a definite crowd pleaser especially when paired with some black tea. I only changed the sour cream for blueberry yogurt which is more accessible to me (no discernable difference in taste, batter remained thick), and creamed the butter and sugar way longer than 2 minutes, as my sugar was being stubborn and not dissolving. I also added some sprinkles on top of the icing to make it more birthday cake-like In my 9×5 pan this baked exactly 45 minutes, though my oven was being fiddly with the temp. After 45 mins a skewer came out mostly clean, but after 1 hr of cooling the cake deflated a little bit around the sides and top, so I didn’t get the domed crack like in the recipe photos. I would describe this cake as like an amped up lemon flavored cake donut with a crackly glazed donut style icing. A must for lovers of sour desserts!
This was fantastic! I used an 8×4 pan, lined it with parchment, and baked for 65 min. Definitely tent with foil half way through. We didn’t even use the glaze, and it is so moist and delicious on its own. I did use the zest of a whole lemon (so more than a teaspoon) and a little extra juice. Would be delicious for a
Strawberry shortcake base.
Looks delicious! Could I use greek yogurt instead of sour cream?
Hi Hannah, absolutely, you can use the same amount of plain Greek yogurt instead.
The flavor is great. I love the cake. I do have a question I use less butter like 200 grams but still is the butter bubbling around the cake. I didn’t put any fat in my cake pan. I don’t understand why. The only time it happens is when i make a cake. With muffins or so not
Greeting from Kastamonu Turkey.
I’ve been following you for years. Your recipes are hands-down my favorites for baked goods.
We have to make a couple changes here due to different ingredients. For example, making our own sour cream. I add extra lemon zest, because we LOVE lemon here. I use a more flat type of leaf pan because that’s what’s available. Similar volume to an American loaf pan. Cooks for 50 minutes.
As always, it’s the perfect lemon loaf.
Thanks ❤️
We’re so glad to read this, Melissa!
The cake turn out so good
I followed the recipe as written and used the smaller loaf pan. Baked as directed, I checked for doneness and took out to cool. As it was cooling, the center caved in and I saw that the bottom was not baked! I tasted the crumb and it was delicious! I wasn’t going to toss it out, so I put it back in the oven. It doesn’t look great, but tastes good. What do you think went wrong?
Hi Rebecca, it sounds like the pound cake was just under baked – make sure to go as deep as you can to check for doneness – extra long toothpicks/skewers are useful, or a metal testing rod!
i made this with fresh lemons from our neighbor’s tree. I tripled the zest. I always do. She liked it so much she wants one for her birthday. After that, I am going to try one with fresh oranges and then grapefruit. I love your site and all the extra tips.
Good cake. Drizzled lemon juice with confectioners sugar on top before removing from pan to soak into cake. Used my Emile Henry pottery loaf pan, went 65 minutes. Tented at 50 minutes. Served with sliced strawberries and whipped cream.