Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Bright and fresh with the perfect amount of sweet lemon flavor.
Texture: Moist and tender, without being too delicate.
Ease: Very easy! The glaze is an extra step, and it’s not completely necessary, but it adds more fresh lemon flavor to the cake.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Beautiful and vibrant cake that’s bound to be your new go-to bake for spring events!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Sometimes there’s nothing I crave more than the bright, vibrant, and fresh taste and aroma of fresh lemon. Like a fresh slice of moist, buttery, Lemon Bundt Cake.
As a complete chocoholic, this tends to be a deviation from my usual sweet cravings.
While this cake is delicious year-round, it’s the perfect citrusy dessert to enjoy during spring and summer. Also, this lemon cake smells absolutely amazing while it bakes. Imagine the combination of the smells of a clean house, a bakery window, and the best candle ever. Guests won’t want to leave when they smell this baking!
Free Buttercream Guide!
Frost your cakes and cupcakes perfectly with our Best Buttercream Guide. Trusted by 50,000+ home bakers.
After the cake is done baking, it gets a drenching of lemon glaze. This amplifies the citrus flavor and boosts the moisture of the cake.
The icing on this best Lemon Bundt Cake recipe is just the way I like it: ultra thick and smooth! Feel free to add more or less cream or lemon juice to thicken or thin it out, but I think thick icing makes a bundt cake extra beautiful and gourmet. Just be sure to let the icing set completely before you serve or transport it.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Lemon Bundt Cake
What is the Difference Between Cake and Bundt Cake?
The main difference is the style of baking pan that’s used. A bundt pan is typically 10 to 12 cups in volume capacity, whereas a single 8-inch round cake pan has 6 cups volume capacity. Besides the shape and design, Bundt cakes are typically more dense, moist, and sturdy than some layer cakes. They need to hold up to the more intricate design of the Bundt cake pan without collapsing or breaking apart. Bundt cakes are also typically covered in an icing or glaze instead of being assembled with buttercream frosting.
How to Make MOIST Cake
- Don’t overmeasure your flour. Accidentally adding too much flour will yield a dense, dry, or crumbly cake. I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale, but if you don’t have one, use the spoon and level method to measure your dry ingredients.
- 8 large eggs – Eggs are crucial to this bundt cake’s richness, moisture, and structure. I do not recommend using egg substitutes in this recipe. Use room-temperature eggs to ensure they blend smoothly into the batter.
- Don’t reduce the sugar – Sugar does so much more in baking beyond simply sweetening. Learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.
Can I Use Baking Soda Instead of Baking Powder in Cake?
Baking powder and baking soda are both chemical leaveners that work to create light textures in baked goods. Although baking powder actually contains baking soda, the two leaveners are very different. Baking powder and baking soda are NOT interchangeable, so make sure to use baking powder for this recipe.
Check out my Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder article to learn how to test your leaveners for freshness (very important!) and for more information, as well as more shocking baking experiment results like this one below:
Do I Have to Use Cake Flour in this Lemon Bundt Cake?
- This recipe uses half all-purpose flour and half cake flour for the best of both worlds.
- When using only all-purpose flour, the cake has more of a muffin texture.
- When using only cake flour, the cake is too delicate and crumbly.
- While you can use only all-purpose flour in the flour mixture, I’d highly recommend using real cake flour for the best results.
- Check out my Cake Flour 101 article here (and why I don’t use DIY substitutes) for more on the science of this ingredient.
Do You Glaze a Cake When it’s Hot?
Allow the bundt cake to cool completely before glazing; otherwise, the glaze will melt right off the hot cake.
How to Prevent Bundt Cake from Sticking
There’s absolutely nothing worse than spending a bunch of time, energy, and ingredients on a cake only to have it stick to the pan and fall apart like the cake on the right:
Here are my three top tips for preventing bundt cakes from sticking to the pan:
- Use a simple, quality nonstick bundt pan and take proper care of it (hand washing and drying instead of using the dishwasher). This is the best bundt pan I’ve found.
- Use the right type of grease. I use baker’s nonstick cooking spray for this recipe, specifically Baker’s Joy. I’ve also had success in the past using melted shortening to grease other bundt cake recipes.
- Grease every nook and cranny of the bundt pan just before baking. This prevents the grease from sliding down the sides of the pan and collecting in a pool at the bottom by the time you pour in the batter. Use a pastry brush to generously apply the grease, being careful to get every centimeter, including the middle column.
- In my How to Prevent Bundt Cakes From Sticking article, I detail even more of my best tips for bundt cake that glides out of the pan perfectly. I also share some tricks for releasing a cake that’s already stuck.
Should You Let a Bundt Cake Cool Before Flipping It?
After baking the cake, cool it in the pan for 15 to 20 minutes, then run a thin, flexible knife around the edges before inverting it onto a wire cooling rack.
Topping Ideas Bundt Cakes
- The Lemon Glaze included in the recipe below
- Fresh berries, such as strawberries or blueberries
- Whipped cream
- Cream Cheese Frosting (if using cream cheese frosting, serve the same day you frost – refrigerating this cake will dry it out)
- A dusting of powdered sugar
- Learn How to Make Ice cream with my simple, easy-to-follow recipe!
How to Store Lemon Bundt Cake
The glazed cake can be covered in foil or plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days. Don’t refrigerate this cake as that will just dry it out. Wrap sliced leftovers well in plastic wrap and store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- Lemon Pound Cake Loaf
- Lemon Cupcakes
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Glazed Lemon Cookies
- Lemon Yogurt Zucchini Bread
Lemon Bundt Cake
Email This Recipe
Enter your email, and we’ll send it to your inbox.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 1/2 cups (191 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups (170 grams) cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 1/2 cups (500 grams) granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons fresh lemon zest (from about 6 lemons)
- 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)
- 8 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120 grams) sour cream*, at room temperature
- 4 sticks (452 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
For the glaze:
- 2 1/2 cups (313 grams) powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons milk or cream
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a food processor or high-speed blender, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Pulse a few times to evenly distribute the zest. Add the lemon juice, eggs, and sour cream and pulse until combined. On low speed, gradually drizzle in the melted and cooled butter in a slow steady stream until well combined.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredient mixture. Pour in the wet ingredients. Mix gently with a rubber spatula until just combined. Batter will be slightly thin.
- Grease a 10 or 12-cup bundt pan generously with baker’s nonstick cooking spray, such as Baker’s Joy, or melted shortening. Use a pastry brush to spread the spray into every nook and cranny of the pan. Immediately pour in the batter.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached, about 50 to 60 minutes.
- Cool in pan for 15 to 20 minutes, then run a thin flexible knife around the edges before inverting onto a wire rack. Cool completely.
Make the glaze:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients until thick but pourable. Add more juice or milk to thin out or more powdered sugar to thicken until your desired consistency. Spoon over the cake, letting it drip down the sides if desired. Let set for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
- The glazed cake can be covered in foil or plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Recipe Notes
This post was originally published in 2018 and has been updated with new photos and recipe improvements. Photos by Joanie Simon.
Good cake but very buttery. I don’t really like butter so it’s maybe just me. Otherwise, rich and delicious. Maybe try to add less butter next time?