Very Soft & Moist Lemon Pound Cake From Scratch

I’m sharing how to make incredibly moist lemon pound cake from scratch. It is perfectly citrusy, brushed with lemon syrup, and finished with lemon icing.

If you love lemon desserts like me, I think you'll love it! 🍋

🍋 I love this moist lemon pound cake because:

• It's packed with fresh lemon flavors.
• It is so tender and moist.
• The steps are very simple.
• The cake is easy to transport to gift it to someone.
• It is very customizable into different shapes and sizes as you desire!

I love to enjoy it with a cup of lemon tea! It is such a simple yet perfect dessert to relax with on your break🫖 Or gift it to your loved ones and share your message.

In this post, you'll learn essential baking tips such as:

• Essential tips to make a very soft pound cake
• Tips for baking pound cakes
• How to make the lemon syrup and lemon icing
• How to store it properly

Jump to:

• 📌 What's In Lemon Pound Cake?
• 📌 How To Make Lemon Pound Cake
• 📌 How To Store Lemon Pound Cake
• 📌 Frequently Asked Questions
• 📌 VIDEO: Lemon Pound Cake
• 📌 Another Lemony Dessert
• 📌 Printable Recipe
• Lemon Pound Cake

📌 What's In Lemon Pound Cake?

The Cake

for an 8” by 4” or 1.5 QT loaf pan

• Granulated sugar
  • It helps to keep the cake moist. It also works as a natural preservative.
• Salt
  • Salt enhances the lemon flavor and makes it more vibrant.
• Lemon zest
  • It adds an amazing aroma to the cake.
• Unsalted butter
  • It's important to use soft butter to make pound cake successful!
• Eggs
  • Eggs help to create a soft texture. Do not use cold eggs, so it emulsifies a lot better with butter. It shouldn't feel anything or slightly warm when you touch it with your finger.
• All-purpose flour
  • You can also use cake flour if you don't have cake flour, but I like to use all-purpose flour specifically for this recipe.
• Baking powder
  • It helps to push up the cake batter in the oven.
• Sour cream
  • It contributes a lot to creating a moist texture.
• Honey
  • Honey helps to keep the cake moist. It also helps to caramelize the surface.
• Vanilla extract
  • I feel the touch of vanilla flavor matches so well with this cake.
• Lemon juice
  • Use the zested lemon.

Lemon Syrup

• Water
• Lemon juice
• Granulated sugar

Lemon Icing

• Powdered sugar
• Lemon juice

📌 How To Make Lemon Pound Cake

9 Steps To Make Lemon Pound Cake

The Cake

1. Mix granulated sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a bowl.
2. Add soft butter and whip until it gets fluffy and pale.
   • Clean a bowl and whisk on the way to whip evenly.
3. Add eggs little by little and whip well each time.
   • Warm eggs until it doesn't feel anything or are slightly warm when you touch them.
   • Clean a bowl and whisk at least a couple of times on the way.
4. Add sifted all-purpose flour and baking powder and mix until you don't see them.
   • Flip the bottom and check carefully to see if the flours are not hiding.
5. Add the rest of the wet ingredients; sour cream, honey, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, and mix until it's blended evenly.
6. Bake at 325 F | 163 C for about 60 - 75 minutes.
   • As an option, insert melted butter in the middle of the surface before baking it so that the cake rises from the line.
   • Adjust the time and temperature accordingly.
   • Insert a toothpick and see if it comes out clean to check if it's baked enough.
   • Wait for 5 - 10 minutes before taking it out from a pan.

Lemon Syrup

7. Heat water, lemon juice, and sugar in a pot until it starts boiling. Take the hot cake out from a pan carefully and apply the syrup all over the cake with a brush.
   • Let it cool down completely before coating it with lemon icing.

Lemon Icing

8. Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice to make the lemon icing. Pour it onto a cake and coat it all around the cake.
9. Bake it at 325 F | 163 C for 1 minute to let the icing dry and gives it a nice crispiness. 

📝 More Tips With Images

Now, let me share detailed tips on each step that are crucial for making the moist lemon pound cake successful.

Preparations

1. Preheat the oven: to 325 F | 163 C
2. Coat a thin layer of butter in a pan, dust all-purpose flour, and toss the pan to remove the excess. Chill it in the fridge until right before use.
3. (Sift all-purpose flour and baking powder)

💡 By chilling the pan until right before you use it, the coating does not get scratched or slide down as you pour the cake batter, and you can create more beautiful, even caramelization on the surface.

Step 1: Mix granulated sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a bowl.

👩🏻‍🍳 Zest only the yellow part on the surface because the white part inside is pretty bitter.

And mix.

💬 I often like to do this at the very beginning and set it aside while I'm weighing other ingredients and working on preparations so that the amazing aroma spreads more in the sugar.

Step 2: Add soft butter and whip until it gets fluffy and pale.

It's very important to use very soft butter, like in the image below. Not hard or melted. It should be perfectly soft!

💬  By whipping it a lot, it contains a lot more air inside.

Clean the bowl and whisk on the way to whip evenly.

👩🏻‍🍳 We're gonna add eggs to it after this. Oil (butter) and liquids (eggs) do not get along, but lots of air in the sugar and butter helps them to emulsify a lot easier. The air works as their middleman! It also helps the cake to rise more in the oven, leading to a softer cake.

Step 3: Add eggs little by little and whip well each time.

👩🏻‍🍳 Egg blends with butter easier when it's not very cold. so I usually like to warm it up a little bit until it feels almost nothing or slightly warm when I insert my finger. (This time, it was 90 F | 32 C.) You can use a water bath or microwave to do so. Check every 5-10 seconds when you use the microwave to make sure that you're not cooking the eggs.

Add eggs little by little and whip until it gets blended completely each time before you add the next one.

I divided it into eight times today.

💬 It's very important to clean the bowl and whisk on the way to blend evenly. I like to clean at least a few times.

Step 4: Add sifted all-purpose flour and baking powder and mix until you don't see them.

Mix well until you don't see any flour.

💬 Flip the batter and check well.

Step 5: Add the rest of the wet ingredients; sour cream, honey, vanilla extract, and lemon juice, and mix until it's blended evenly.

Mix well until it's blended evenly.

💬 Clean up the bowl, spatula, and check the bottom to see if you didn't miss anything.

and move it into the pan.

Step 6: Bake at 325 F | 163 C for about 60 - 75 minutes.

As an option, melt a little bit of butter and insert it in the middle of the surface, like in the image below, using a dough scraper or something similar.

💬  By doing that, the cake batter inside cracks open from the line. It creates a very neat look! I inserted 2 times on both the left and right and 1 more time on the middle.

Adjust the time and temperature accordingly depending on the oven, the size of a pan, etc.

To check if it's done, insert a toothpick in the very center and see if it comes out clean.

💬  The cake is very soft right after it's made. Don't take it out from the pan right away, and leave it there for just about five to ten minutes.

And meanwhile, let's work on the lemon syrup! It's the final step😉

Step 7: Heat water, lemon juice, and sugar in a pot until it starts boiling. Take the hot cake out from a pan carefully and apply the syrup all over the cake with a brush.

Apply it to a cake right away.

👩🏻‍🍳 A hot cake soaks up the hot syrup a lot better than a cold cake. Brush it while it's still hot!

Be very careful not to hurt the cake when you move it because it's still soft. Treat it like a baby 🐣.

💬 You may wonder if you should apply all of it since it's a lot of liquids, but please do! The cake tastes much better with this liquid. It tastes more citrusy and moist.

Let it cool down completely before we apply the lemon icing. 

Step 8: Mix powdered sugar and lemon juice to make the lemon icing. Pour it onto a cake and coat it all around the cake.

Mix well until it looks very smooth.

Drizzle all over the cake. And coat the side evenly.

💬  The cake tastes even better with this icing: The lemon flavor gets more vibrant and vivid. It also prevents the cake from getting dried quickly.

Attach pistachios or any decoration you like while the icing is sticky.

⚠️ And I gotta say today, I added a little bit more lemon juice than the recipe, like a teaspoon more (I said 1 tablespoon in the video tutorial by mistake!), so the icing was a little bit thinner than usual.

The images below show how the icing usually looks. You can see that it's a little bit thicker. I just wanted to mention that!!

Step 9: Bake it at 325 F | 163 C for 1 minute to let the icing dry

Bake it for a very short time to make it dry.

It gives a very pleasant crispiness that matches so well with the soft cake inside.

... and that's it!

Bon-appetit ☕️

💬 Pound cake is the first cake I learned about in a cooking school, as far as I remember. (It was an earl grey pound cake. My other favorite!) I remember being amazed at how delicious it is and hooked on making it a lot through the year.

I realized that I hadn't shared a pound cake recipe for the past 4 years (since I started my YouTube channel). Crazy!

It is so simple yet a great cake to learn about lots of baking science. I tried to pack as many tips as possible. I hope it was helpful to you!

📌 How To Store Lemon Pound Cake

To store this cake, wrap it tightly so it won't get dried.

You can store it at room temperature for up to four to five days.

If you are not consuming it within a few days, I recommend storing it in the fridge.

You can store it in the fridge for a week or possibly longer.

I personally prefer eating it within that day or at least a few days for the best taste!

Chilling it in the fridge:

I can't forget to mention that pound cake gets much firmer when it's cold because the butter in the cake gets hard.

To enjoy the softer texture, wrap the cake and warm it up in the microwave a little bit or leave it at room temperature. 

📌 Frequently Asked Questions

📌 VIDEO: Lemon Pound Cake

To learn how to make lemon pound cake visually and have a deeper understanding of all, watch this video!

Don't forget to subscribe if you liked it 😉

📌 Another Lemony Dessert

Also, try this delicious lemon madeleine if you are a lemon cake lover! The texture is so soft and citrusy. My favorite Madeleine by far. It is not going to disappoint you.

🌼🌼 The End 🌼🌼

💬 If you loved this recipe, please share your feedback on this post! I always love hearing how you enjoyed it with your friends and family at home.

📌 Printable Recipe

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