This easy Lemon Pound Cake with cream cheese is super moist with a dense crumb and intense lemon flavor. Topped with a sweet and sour lemon glaze, it’s simple, classic and perfect for any occasion.
Bake in a bundt pan for a beautiful presentation, or in regular loaf pans if you prefer. If you love pound cake as much as we do, be sure to try our chocolate pound cake recipe, Lime Pound Cake, or Pound Cake made with cream cheese.
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Lemon Pound Cake With Cream Cheese
This homemade Lemon Pound Cake with cream cheese recipe uses fresh lemon juice, zest, and a dash of lemon extract to create a burst of lemon flavor in every bite. Topped with a sugary lemon pound cake glaze, the finished result is a soft, buttery, moist, and tender cake that tastes like sunshine.
Our simple recipe uses cream cheese in the batter to add a little tanginess and keeps things extra moist. Any lemon-lover in your life will find this Lemon Pound Cake irresistible, especially served with a dollop of whipped cream and fresh raspberries - oh my!
Key Ingredients
- Butter - your butter should be soft so it’s best to pull it out to room temperature in advance. If you forget, you can microwave it for about 10 seconds at a time until softened but not melted.
- Cream Cheese - this adds moisture, flavor and great texture to the pound cake. Make sure it is softened at room temperature, just like the butter.
- Eggs - any kind of large eggs will work. It’s best if they are room temperature so that they don’t cause the butter mixture to seize up. You can run them under warm water, too.
- Flour - either all-purpose flour or cake flour work best for pound cake.
- Milk - whole milk is best, although 2% makes a good substitute.
- Lemon Zest - use the zest from the lemons you use to juice the lemon glaze.
- Vanilla Extract - pure vanilla extract tastes best.
- Lemon Extract - this boosts the lemon flavor in the cake.
Lemon Glaze for Pound Cake
- Powdered Sugar - this adds sweetness without any grittiness.
- Lemon Juice - fresh lemon juice tastes best. Make sure and zest before juicing.
- Lemon Extract - this isn’t necessary but adds great lemon flavor.
- Vanilla Extract - we like to use vanilla extract to boost the lemon flavor just a touch.
How to Make Lemon Pound Cake
- Cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, whip together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes.
- Mix the batter. Slowly add the eggs, mixing after each addition and scraping down the sides as necessary to make the mixture smooth. Add the flour and mix on low speed until almost completely combined. Finally, mix the milk, salt, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.
- Bake. Transfer to a buttered and floured 9-10 cup bundt pan and bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool. Once finished, remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Put a plate or serving dish on top of the bundt cake pan and flip the cake onto the serving plate to cool completely.
- Make the lemon glaze. In the meantime, make the lemon glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar, lemon juice, lemon extract, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.
- Glaze and serve. Drizzle the glaze over the pound cake and let it set up before slicing to serve with a dollop of whipped cream, fresh raspberries, or a scoop of ice cream. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
You’ll often see pound cakes baked in a bundt pan or a round tube cake pan. They make an excellent presentation and give more surface area, which spreads the heat more evenly around the extremely dense cake batter. You can also bake in loaf pans, filling them up about ⅔ full. Just keep in mind that the bake time will need to be adjusted.
A pound cake refers to a very dense, buttery style of cake that was traditionally made with a pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. A bundt cake refers less to the recipe structure and ingredients and more to the pan it is baked in. If a pound cake is baked in a bundt pan, you could technically call it either a bundt cake or a pound cake!
The first secret to moist pound cake is making sure you mix the ingredients correctly. You want your butter and cream cheese to be softened at room temperature so that they will cream properly with the sugar. Then, make sure your eggs are also at room temperature so that they will create an emulsion in the batter when added.
If your eggs are too cold, they will cause the butter to seize up when added, rather than emulsifying and making a homogenous mixture. This can cause problems when the butter-heavy cake batter hits the oven because if it’s not emulsified properly, the butter can leak out, taking a lot of the moisture with it.
The other secret is adding extra dairy in the form of cream cheese, sour cream or buttermilk. This extra dairy adds flavor and moisture to the pound cake.
Storing and Freezing Instructions
- Room Temperature: wrap any unfinished cake in aluminum foil, or any airtight container, and store for up to 2 days at room temperature.
- Refrigerator: pound cake can also be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Freezing: wrap your unglazed Lemon Pound Cake well with plastic wrap and aluminum foil then place in a larger freezer bag. Store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Once you are ready to eat, pull from the freezer and store at room temperature, or in the fridge, overnight. Glaze at least an hour before eating so it has a chance to set.
Lemon Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Butter room temperature
- 8 ounces Cream Cheese room temperature
- 3 cups Sugar
- 6 large Eggs
- 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
- ¾ cup Milk
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ tsps Lemon Zest from 2-3 lemons
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Lemon Extract
Lemon Pound Cake Glaze
- 1 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
- ¼ teaspoon Lemon Extract
- ¼ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease and flour a 9-10 cup bundt cake pan and set aside..
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, whip together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes.
- Slowly add the eggs, mixing after each addition and scraping down the sides as necessary to make the mixture smooth. Add the flour and mix on low speed until almost completely combined. Finally, add the milk, salt, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and lemon extract, mix and transfer to the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Once finished, remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Put a plate or serving dish on the top of the bundt cake pan and flip the cake onto the serving plate to cool completely.
- In the meantime, make the lemon glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar, lemon juice, lemon extract and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Add more lemon juice if necessary to reach your desired consistency.
- Drizzle the glaze over the pound cake and let it set up before slicing to serve with a dollop of whipped cream, fresh raspberries or a scoop of ice cream. Enjoy!
Nutrition
More of the Best Cake Recipes To Try
- Carrot Cake
- Gingerbread Cake
- Lime Bundt Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake
- Lemon Bundt Cake
- Coconut Filled Chocolate Bundt Cake
- Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake
- Funfetti Bundt Cake Recipe
- Strawberry Shortcake
- More Dessert Recipes
- More Recipes with Lemon
Topped with homemade lemon glaze, you will love this classic Lemonade Pound Cake recipe. It's moist, tender and full of bright lemon flavor.
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