Lemon Pound Cake Loaf

How to Make Lemon Pound Cake Loaf

What is Pound Cake?

Pound cake is traditionally made with a pound of each of the four main ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Despite the fact that this makes a traditional pound cake recipe easy to remember, it doesn’t always produce the best results. You’ll see my recipe below still uses a lot of butter and sugar, but the ratios vary slightly.

How to Make MOIST Lemon Pound Cake

• Measure your ingredients correctly: I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale to measure your ingredients here – especially your flours. It’s all too easy to accidentally compact too much flour into your measuring cups, which will result in dry, lackluster pound cake. If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon-and-level method instead.
• Don’t reduce the sugar: It might seem simple to lower the sugar to cut sweetness, but this will have a much bigger impact beyond the sweetness of your loaf. Lowering the sugar will impact the texture, structure, and more. Learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.
• Eggs and Sour Cream: These ingredients are crucial to this pound cake recipe, to create a rich, moist loaf, with the necessary structure while maintaining tenderness. Feel free to use full-fat plain unsweetened yogurt instead of sour cream. I don’t recommend using an egg replacement unless you’re up for some experimenting.
• Butter: We’re using plenty of butter in this pound cake recipe, for a beautifully moist, buttery loaf with the best flavor AND texture. I always recommend using unsalted butter in baking. I have not tried any butter substitutes here.

Do I Have to Use Cake Flour?

This recipe uses half all-purpose flour and half cake flour for the best of both worlds. When using only all-purpose flour, the loaf has more of a muffin texture. When using only cake flour, the loaf is too delicate and crumbly. While you can use only all-purpose flour, I highly recommend using real cake flour for the best results. Learn more about cake flour (and why I don’t use DIY substitutes) here.

Why Does This Loaf Recipe Require a Blender or Food Processor?

• Like all pound cakes, this is a high-ratio cake – meaning there’s as much or more sugar than flour. This provides a beautifully moist tight-crumbed texture without needing to cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer.
• Instead, a blender or food processor not only assists in making quick and easy work of making this batter, but it also helps emulsify all the rich ingredients together into a smooth batter.
• The last ingredient is the melted butter, which must be drizzled in a steady stream as the blender or food processor runs to perfectly emulsify.

Can I Use a Different Sized Pan?

This recipe uses a 9 x 5-inch light-colored metal loaf pan for best results.

To Bake in a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch Pan:

• Add about 5 minutes to the baking time. This is the pan I use for smaller loaves. Loaves baked in this slightly smaller pan will rise higher and look taller, more like what you’d see in a bakery case.
• If you use an even smaller pan, you may run the risk of the loaf overflowing, or collapsing slightly in the center – especially if you live at higher altitudes.

To Bake in a Bundt Cake Pan:

• Double all ingredients and bake in a well-greased 10 to 12 cup bundt pan and bake for about 50 to 60 minutes.
• OR, use my Lemon Bundt Cake recipe which is more light and cakey than this pound cake recipe.

To Bake in Glass or a Ceramic Pan:

• I tested this recipe in a metal pan because it conducts heat quickly and efficiently.
• Glass and ceramic are slower conductors of heat, so if you use this style pan you’ll need to decrease your baking temperature to 325°F and increase your baking time by about 10 minutes.
• Check out my article on Glass vs. Metal Pans. 

The SECRET to Bright Lemon Flavor in Pound Cake (Even After Baking)

Lemon flavor can dull during the baking process. That’s why this recipe calls for two whole tablespoons (not teaspoons!) of both lemon zest and juice. Then there’s a tablespoon of fresh juice in the glaze, which helps give a fresh punch of lemon flavor. You’ll need about 3 large lemons in total.

The Lemon Glaze for Pound Cake

Be sure to wait until your Lemon Pound Cake is completely cooled before glazing. Glazing a warm pound cake will cause the glaze to absorb and/or melt right off the loaf. Note: The consistency of your glaze will depend entirely on the brand of powdered sugar you’re using and how humid it is in your kitchen. Here’s how to tweak the glaze as needed:

• To Make the Lemon Glaze Thinner: Add more lemon juice or milk, 1 teaspoon at a time.
• To Make the Lemon Glaze Thicker: Add more powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time.

How to Store Lemon Pound Cake Loaf

The glazed Lemon Pound Cake Loaf can be covered in foil or plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Can I Freeze Lemon Pound Cake Loaf?

Yes! Wrap the unglazed loaf tightly in plastic wrap and store for 1 month. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then bring to room temperature before glazing. Your loaf will likely develop a moist or tacky surface on top, but the glaze should disguise it nicely.