Italian Lemon Pound Cake is the only lemon cake recipe you will ever need! You are going to love the super moist texture and the rich citrus flavor.
The Italian Lemon Pound Cake is sure to have you hooked after just one bite. It really is that good! Every time I take this cake to a party it is always a huge hit.
Have you ever bit into a lemon dessert and instantly pucker up because the lemon flavor is so overpowering? You don’t need to worry about that with this recipe. It has the perfect balance between sweet and tart, so it is pucker free.
If you have a chance, try making the cake the day before you are going to serve it, because It tastes even better the next day!
Serve this Italian Lemon Pound Cake at a baby or wedding shower or enjoy it while sitting on the back porch on a quiet summer evening.
Who am I kidding, this cake would be amazing no matter where you are or who you serve it to.
With love from my kitchen to yours,
Carrie
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Here are some of the items that I recommend for making this cake.
*UPDATE: I added 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger to the cake batter, because I felt like it needed a little bit of kick to the lemon flavor. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes. Then I omitted the butter from the glaze, because the butter is very temperamental and can curdle. I brush the glaze on the warm cake and once it has cooled down, drizzle the lemon cream cheese frosting over the cake.
Italian Lemon Pound Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup of sour cream
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tsp. of fresh ginger, minced
Zest of 2 lemons ( about 2 tbsp.)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees
1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla, ginger, and lemon zest.
2. Mix half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Mix in the buttermilk and then add in the remaining flour mixture. Mix just until the flour disappears. Pour the cake batter into a bundt pan that has been generously sprayed with baking spray.
3. Bake for 70 to 80 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Turn the cake over on a cake platter. Spread the lemon glaze over the warm cake so that the glaze can soak into the cake. Let the cake cool completely and drizzle the lemon cream cheese frosting over the cake.
Lemon Glaze
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoon lemon juice, at room temperature
1. Whisk the powdered sugar and lemon juice together and mix until the glaze is smooth.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. of cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp. of lemon zest
1/4 cup of lemon juice
2 cups of powder sugar
- Mix the all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy.
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Tata says
I made this 3 times and we love it so much ! However, I need your help because I can never take it off the pan in one piece and the parts that don’t fall apart then, end up falling into pieces later. I confess I am adding more lemon juice than the recipe asks for (I use about 6 tbsp of key lime and the taste is so amazing). I just want help with this falling apart problem. Seems I am the only one having this problem and maybe it is the extra 2 tbsp lemon juice………or it may be something else…….All I know and that when I add the lemon juice, the batter immediately looks like there are crumbs in it. If anyone can help, please ! Thanks you !
Stacey Duggan says
This was amazing! Had no Bundt pan so used two loaf pans – I’m no professional baker – the cream cheese icing did not “drizzle” and turned out just like icing (not sure what I did wrong there?) so the presentation wasn’t as nice but it is so yummy I’ll be Adding this to my favourites!
Josephine says
I really enjoyed making and eating this cake it is So moist and I also used the Ginger as well I love the mild tartness and sweetness of the glaze and icing as well.?? I will be making it again. Thanks for sharing.?
Martina says
Today was my 3rd time I made this. I love it. I just dont use 2 cups of sugar, I use 1 and a half cup…american recipes are always too sweet for my taste.
Christina says
I have just baked this cake sans ginger (none in the house) in one loaf pan and one cake pan, since I do not own a Bundt pan and it turned out great! Im definetly baking this again!
Tabarak says
I have tried it , perfect recipe??
Louise says
When I came across this recipe, I really liked that the the ingredients stated in it were natural and i a way “old fashioned” (because in so many recipes they use citric acid instead of real lemon juice, or vegetable oil instead of butter and so on), so I decided to give it a try – and the outcome is genuinely the best pound cake I have ever eaten!
I also did the glaze only, same as the previous reviewers. It is a bit sour and goes perfectly with the cake. And, as to ginger, I added 1,5 teaspoons of it, chopped in super tiny peaces, and the result was very good. It really does give a kick! Also, I don’t have a bundt pan so I used a regular 26cm or ca 10 inch cake pan. Since in Europe we don’t use F ovens, I googled a bit and then set my oven to 150 C fan mode and baked the cake for 65 minutes, and in the end it turned out just perfect. Thank you for the recipe, I am definitely going to repeat this one!
Janet says
I made this, and it was delicious. The cake was nice and moist with a tender crumb. I did add lemon zest to the glaze as well as to the lemon cream cheese “frosting”, which isn’t really a frosting, it’s a glaze too, but still delicious. My co-workers loved it.
Gail says
This cake was delicious and moist. I just did the glaze, no frosting and was so good.
Dee McLaughlin says
This may well be the most delicious cake I have ever eaten in my 67 years on the planet! Absolutely out of this world. I also left off the cream cheese frosting because we love tart and didn’t feel any ore sweetness was needed. We couldn’t detect the ginger flavor but I have no doubt that it added a lot.