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Lemon Bundt Cake

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This Lemon Bundt Cake is moist and full of fresh lemon flavour! A fresh sugar lemon glaze is drizzled over and into the baked cake, taking it to the next level. So delicious. If you’re a lemon lover, you’ll love this cake!

Lemons. Sometimes I just can’t get enough of lemons. I love how gorgeous they are, I love how they smell and taste…they’re just like sunshine all wrapped up in a beautiful little citrus fruit. And how wonderful are they in baking?!

Yesterday as I stared at our basket of lemons I thought, I need to make a cake with those. I usually make this lemon loaf from a recipe that I got from a good friend over 10 years ago, but this time I decided to make a Lemon Bundt Cake. Mondays just beg for fresh cake. Especially cakes made in beautiful pans.

a top down view of a lemon bundt cake sitting on a blue and white tile background. lemons and lemon leaves surround the cake

All. The. Bundt. Cakes.

I have a love for Bundt cakes. There’s something so beautiful about a perfectly baked cake from a gorgeous pan. But I also love them because they’re so easy to make, which make them one of my go-to desserts. I’ve made an Earl Grey Tea Bundt Cake, a Coconut Bundt Cake, a Caramel Apple Bundt Cake, an Eggnog Bundt Cake and a Peach Bundt Cake. And now a Lemon Bundt cake. So basically I’m obsessed. There’s no other explanation.

a lemon bundt cake sits on a white plate on a blue and white tiled background. the cake is cut into slices.

About this Lemon Bundt Cake

The base recipe for this cake is my go-to vanilla bundt cake base. It’s soft, moist and is perfect for this lemon cake. This cake is vanilla-y, lemony and so good. I really think this is the best lemon bundt cake recipe!

a lemon bundt cake sits on a white plate on a blue and white tiled background. the cake is cut into slices.

Don’t Forget the Lemon Sugar Drizzle!

The addition of the fresh lemon juice/sugar mix after the cake has baked, really takes this cake to the next level. Make sure to pierce the cake top so the drizzle can get right into the cake. It adds so much flavour, but it also makes this cake extra moist!

INGREDIENT TIPS:

  • Milk: I use 2% or whole milk in this recipe. You can also use a 6% Balkan style yogurt, sour cream or Greek yogurt instead.
  • Lemon: Use fresh lemon juice and zest.
  • Baking Powder:  One of the most common comments I receive about this cake is concern over the amount of baking powder. This recipe calls for 4 tsp of baking powder which I have always, always used in my vanilla bundt cake-base recipes like this one. Some think this is too much. So I tried the recipe a few times with 2 tsp of baking powder instead of 4. And I did not notice much of a difference in taste or texture between the 2.

RECIPE TIPS:

  • PAN SIZE:  Use a 10 or 12-cup bundt pan for this cake.
  • PREPARING YOUR BUNDT PAN:  I use a flour/oil spray (Pam has a really good one) to prepare all of my pans.  Without proper pan preparation your cake will not slide out of the pan easily (or at all). The key is to make sure you get the flour/oil spray into all the nooks and crannies, especially for some of the really fancy pans, otherwise the cake will stick there.  BUT don’t overspray your pans either, you don’t want to taste the spray on your cake…you just need a light spray that covers every area in the pan. You can also just butter and flour your pan, again making sure to get it into all the nooks and crannies.
  • THE BATTER:  The batter is thick, not runny.  This is just the nature of Bundt cakes.
  • LET IT COOL:  Once your cake is baked and removed from the oven, make sure to let it rest in the pan for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a plate. If you don’t let it rest, it’s more likely that the cake will stick to your pan on the way out. Sometimes I use my fingers to gently pull the cake away from the edges of the pan before I tip it out.
  • HOW TO REMOVE YOUR CAKE FROM THE PAN:  Once your cake has cooled, place a serving plate over the top of the cake pan, then holding the plate tightly to the pan, invert the cake over and the cake should slide out onto the plate.  Gently remove the pan
  • SERVING: This cake is best served the day it is made.
  • STORING:  Make sure to cover/store this cake and any leftovers, in an air tight container or it will dry out (bundt cakes dry out easily). I leave mine out on the counter, there’s no need to refrigerate.
  • Serve with: This cake is wonderful served with fresh berries!
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Lemon Bundt Cake

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★★★★★

4.4 from 34 reviews

This Lemon Bundt Cake is moist and full of fresh lemon flavour! A fresh sugar lemon glaze is drizzled over and into the baked cake, taking it to the next level. So delicious. If you’re a lemon lover, you’ll love this cake!

  • Author: Jo-Anna Rooney
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Total Time: 60 minutes
  • Yield: 1 cake 1x
  • Category: Cake
  • Method: Baking

Ingredients

Scale

Lemon Cake:

  • 1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • zest from 1 lemon
  • 2 cups flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice (1 lemon yields about this amount)

Lemon Glaze Topping:

  • juice from 1/2 fresh lemon (about 2 tablespoons lemon juice)
  • 2 tbsp sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Prepare a Bundt pan by rubbing the inside of the pan with butter then dust it lightly with flour (or you can use an oil/flour spray, these are great for prepping pans). Set aside.
  3. With an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar.
  4. Add the eggs, one at a time.
  5. Then add the vanilla.
  6. Mix in the lemon zest.
  7. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder.
  8. To the butter mix, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then 1/2 of the fresh lemon juice, then the 1/3 of the flour mix, then 1/2 of the milk. Repeat until all combined.
  9. Pour the cake batter into your prepared Bundt pan. Use a rubber spatula to smooth the batter.
  10. Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  11. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes in the pan, then turn the cake out onto a plate.
  12. While the cake is cooling, combine the juice from 1/2 of a lemon with 2 tbsp of sugar.
  13. Gently poke the cake with a knife, then pour the lemon/sugar mixture over the top of the cake.
  14. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
  15. Serve and enjoy!

Keywords: lemon cake, lemon pound cake, lemon bundt cake

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More Delicious Lemon Recipes:

I hope you enjoy this Lemon Bundt Cake as much as we do! Have a delicious day!

Note: This recipe was originally published April 2015. I have since updated the post with new images and more recipe tips. Same great recipe though!

Hi I'm Jo-Anna Rooney, the creator, director, baker, maker and home decorator here at A Pretty Life in the Suburbs! I'm sharing a simple home life through fresh and easy recipes and uncomplicated home tips and home decor.

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45 Comments

  9. Perfect dessert for a Spring evening. My husband’s favorite flavor in cakes. Thanks for sharing at Thursday Favorite Things. I hope you will join us again this Thursday!

    Reply

  11. I love bundt cake and this lemon recipe looks just fantastic! Such a great flavor for cake. So bright and cheery with the powdered sugar dusting!
    Thanks so much for linking up at #Purebloglove link party! The party starts every Thursday night at 8 p.m. est! It runs through the week end. I’m hosting at http://www.homemadefoodjunkie.com. Can’t wait to see what you bring next Thursday. We love your ideas!

    Reply

  12. Your lemon bundt cake is lovely! It would be the perfect dessert for any Springtime celebration, especially a Mother’s Day brunch! Thank you for sharing at OhMyHeartsieGirlWW! I’ve pinned and tweeted, also featured it on my blog this week! Have a great week! Looking forward to seeing you next week! xo Christine@CherishingaSweetLife

    Reply

  15. That was an awesome recipe and very easy to make, Thank you!
    But there is one thing that didn’t work very well..when I put the lemon juice while it was still cooling, the cake dropped a bit and the cake broke a bit 🙁 . next time, do you think I can put the lemon juice after it cooled completely?

    Thank you!!

    Reply

  16. 5 stars
    This is very good! It’s such a light tasting cake and the lemon drizzle really tops it off. Mine stuck to the bundt pan a bit even after buttering and flouring it, but it tasted awesome.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  17. 4 stars
    Sorry, for some reason it posted 1 star but I really gave it 4. The flavor was nice but I think 4tsp of baking powder was a bit much. Mine ended up very airy (had a lot of air pockets instead of having a nice sold crumb as in the picture. These would be divine as cupcakes.

    ★★★★

    Reply

  19. Looks positively delish! Making for dear friend’s birthday. Thinking of decorating with edible flowers. Thsnks for lovely recipe!

    Reply

  21. 4 stars
    Beautiful cake! I made this to take to work. I have been relaxing more by being in the kitchen. So I love to try new recipes and test them on my coworkers before adding them into rotation. LoL ?
    I made this the night before. So I let it cool, flipped it onto a cake pad on my cake carrier, did the pokes, added the glaze, and then I added the powdered sugar and secured the carrier lid.
    Now, I am capable enough to bake well, but I am not knowledgeable enough yet to really know tips and reasons for why this s are the way they are. So, overnight in the cute cake carrier, the gorgeous crispy tips of the cake became soft and the powdered sugar dissolved. In retrospect I can understand the causes for both. Guessing really, but the powdered sugar was absorbed by the still shiny glaze and the moisture from the glaze sitting insid an airtight cake carrier on the counter overnight created an environment of moist air thus keeping the glaze from settling quickly and the tips to get soft from the sugar and lemon juice?

    I start my workday at 6:20am. Many coworkers tried the cake with coffee for a second breakfast snack. I only heard positive reviews, though I’m not sure they believe me when I ask for negative feedback if they have it. I personally felt the cake texture was off. A bit too crumbly, a bit too dense. As I read above, I also think that 4tbs of baking powder may also be a bit too much. Still, the flavor was there and three 20 somethings said the cake was “bomb” so I think that’s good.

    ★★★★

    Reply

  22. 4 stars
    I used it in a square cake pan (didn’t have the bundt cake pan and really want to try out this recipe, so I used what I have) for this recipe. The cake turned out moist and the sweet level is right on. Thank you for sharing.

    ★★★★

    Reply

  23. 4 stars
    This cake was a hit!! We made it tonight as a pre-Thanksgiving dessert. Even my husband, who’s not a big fan of lemony desserts, enjoyed it! Can’t wait to try some of your other recipes!

    ★★★★

    Reply

  24. 4 stars
    Hi. I made this cake for a Christmas gathering, and while it looked and tasted great, it was a bit dry. I am a fairly new baker, and am thus far, much better with cookies. Any advice or tips on what I may have done wrong? I plan to attempt a redo, but don’t want to make the same mistake.

    Thanks in advance to you more experienced bakers!

    ★★★★

    Reply

  25. I’m not a baker but I’d like to try this per request of my husband whos grandma used to make him lemon bundt cakes. What type of flour do you use? Self rising or AP?

    Reply

      1. Hello Jo-Anna,
        I’m on the KETO diet. I’m going to make it tomorrow for my husband’s birhtday and I will substitute some ingredients to make it keto-friendly. I will let you know how it turned out. 🙂

        Reply

  26. 5 stars
    I made this today and I’m absolutely making it AGAIN AND AGAIN! I love how you can really taste the lemon and our home smells soooo good while it’s baking in the oven. For me this cake is an awesome alternative when you want to take a break from the sweet goodies.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  28. 5 stars
    I recently made this recipe as an “everyday” cake for my family. They couldn’t stop slicing into it. When I gave my teenage daughter her choice of any dessert she wanted me to bake for her birthday this weekend, she requested this without batting an eye.

    I just love that it stands on its own without overly-sweet frosting or glaze. I think I will just scatter some fresh berries and mint leaves around the base of the cake to give it a festive look.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  32. This is my first Bundt cake. I scored an American made pan by Nordic Ware at Costco when it was on clearance.
    Meyer Lemons are overwhelming us right now in Northern California . First I prepared 8 cups for freezing… and 8 portions of lemon zest.
    To reward myself I decided to make your beautiful cake.
    It’s cooling right now. Will poke and pour the lemon simple syrup on soon.
    I’m going to wait until tomorrow to dust it with the powdered sugar.
    The wait is the hardest part.
    Thank you!

    ★★★★★

    Reply