Minimal and inexpensive ingredients, minimal preparation time, easy, and tastes divine...it has to be heaven! Delicious moist lemon cake, perfect served hot with cream for dessert, or cold with coffee!
This is a wonderful lemony pound cake! I highly recommend that you mix the lemon zest with the sugar first, stirring it together with a fork so the lemon oils get fully incorporated into the sugar. This makes a more even lemon flavor throughout the cake as well as dispersing the zest more evenly. I like to let the zest and sugar hang out while the butter is softening. I only used one cup of sugar and it worked out perfectly for me. I used an 8 inch square cake pan and checked the cake after 35 minutes and it was fully done (it could have been ready earlier then that so I would check on it around 30 minutes next time). I also would not skip out on the lemon syrup, this dense cake would be very dry without it! I dusted the cake with powdered sugar to make it a little prettier and cover up the holes from the syrup. This is great served with some blueberry sauce and dollop of whip cream!
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Way too dry, heavy, and very tart. I love tart but this cake/pound cake is not for us.
Read MoreThis is a wonderful lemony pound cake! I highly recommend that you mix the lemon zest with the sugar first, stirring it together with a fork so the lemon oils get fully incorporated into the sugar. This makes a more even lemon flavor throughout the cake as well as dispersing the zest more evenly. I like to let the zest and sugar hang out while the butter is softening. I only used one cup of sugar and it worked out perfectly for me. I used an 8 inch square cake pan and checked the cake after 35 minutes and it was fully done (it could have been ready earlier then that so I would check on it around 30 minutes next time). I also would not skip out on the lemon syrup, this dense cake would be very dry without it! I dusted the cake with powdered sugar to make it a little prettier and cover up the holes from the syrup. This is great served with some blueberry sauce and dollop of whip cream!
I made this into cupcakes, baking for 23 minutes. (I had expert advice from another member to start checking at 16 minutes and follow up in 3 minute intervals. They are so moist and lemony even before adding the syrup. I kept going back and rereading the recipe because the batter seemed so thick, but they baked up light and luscious. Thank you Christina, this recipe is a keeper.
This was LEMONICIOUS! If you love lemon, this cake is for you! My daughter says it tastes like a lemon bar. It is so moist from the lemon syrup, and just the right amount of tartness. It is a rich, sweet cake - but I'm sure you could cut the sugar amount back and it would still be delicious. This one is going in the recipe box!
Fabulous lemon taste! I mixed the zest with the sugar as westcoastmom did, As that made complete sense to me. My cake only needed 30 min in a round cake pan. I also reduced sugar to 1 cup. Cake is dense, but I found the lemon sugar sauce moistened the cake quite a bit. I liked it best with whipped cream, as it added a light note and more moisture. Wanted a big piece, but it's dense so my ti mmy said NO. Easy to put together. The batter is thick, but no biggie, used back of soup spoon to spread it in pan, which worked well. Will make agsin. I could see a nice blueberry or raspberry sauce on this being a nice addition.
Excellent lemon cake. It's very dense and very lemony. My husband couldn't believe how good it tasted. I did use a 9" square pan and baked for about 40 minutes. I will make this again, for certain!!
What a delicious, light, yummy treat this cake is! Yum! I used some Meyer lemons that were gifted to me, and I followed the recipe as written with three exceptions: I figured that one lemon produces about 1/4 cup of juice, so I used 3/4 cup of lemon juice for the syrup--but I didn't bother to heat the syrup. I baked it for 42 minutes at which time the cake seemed to be done. I sifted the flour and baking powder but not with the lemon zest (added that afterwards) because you can't get zest through a sifter! I like the idea of adding the zest to the flour mixture because it coats it so that it mixes evenly throughout the batter. My family will love this cake! Thanks, Christina!
This cake was such a treat! I belong to the 'I love lemon club' and this was all of that and then some! This was so delicious and I served it with whipped cream. Loved the lemony zing! Definitely will make this again! Thanks for sharing such an awesome recipe Christina!
This is an absolutely delicious lemon cake. So easy to make with wonderful results. My only regret is that I didn't make it sooner. It's been in my recipe box for over a year and it will see it's way out of there quite often now! Update: 07/26/17 This is still one of my favorite lemon cakes. Half of he family thinks it's too tart the other half thinks it's perfect. You have to love lemon to love this. And I love lemon!
I just made this on Saturday, and it is wonderful. If you like lemon, you will love this cake. It's so moist and just the right amount of sweet. It's almost gone so I've got to make another one later this week. Thanks for the recipe.
Lemony - yes, dense - yes, delicious - yes. This cake is all 3 of those, and then some! I made as written only omitting the parchment paper as I was not taking it out of the pan until I served individual pieces. The syrup adds a moistness to the cake along with the tart-zestiness flavoring. The cake was very well received in this lemon-loving household. It was served with a dollop of whipped cream and fresh strawberry.
Delicious! Yes, very lemony but that's the point. I did tone mine down a tad from the recipe though by doing a couple things. I used Meyer lemons - a little sweeter. And rather than use granulated sugar and heat, I used powdered sugar and microwaved for about 20 seconds. I think this recipe would be a good base for other flavors also - vanilla bean, chocolate chip, almond, orange...I can't wait to try it out with different options. And yes, the cake is very dense, but not dry. Just be sure not to overbake. Thanks for a great recipe!
Very tart and so full of lemon flavor! Just what I was looking for.......moist, tart, yum!
This was delicious. Really easy to put together. I also loved that it was a smaller cake. Loved the lemon flavor it was the right amount. Little on the sweet side but its cake. Will make this again!
Way too dry, heavy, and very tart. I love tart but this cake/pound cake is not for us.
Mmmmmm..... I was like: hmmm...E-Z! I'm going to try it. And now im like: WOWOWOOWOWOWOOW Im going to make it every day.
This is a simple and elegant cake that is sure to please any lover of lemon! My husband and daughter LOVED it. I will definitely be making this in the near future!
I'm not loving this as much as everyone else and it did turn out right for me. I think I'm not liking the zing, and I do love lemon. I iced it with a cream cheese frosting (made mine into a King Cake, the holiday snuck up on me this year) and then dusted it with Mardi Gras sugars...still didn't really excite me. The husband & toddler loved it though, maybe it'll grow on me by tomorrow. If so I'll add another star. *It's better the 2nd day, so I did add another star. ***I did add buttermilk to thin the batter and I still wound up having to smash it in place with the back of my spatula into my pan.
This is good, quick and fairly inexpensive. I recommend 1c sugar to 3 lemons worth of juice and cook it long enough to thicken slightly. Made them in cupcakes as suggested by BigShotsMom.
Wow. This cake is serious about lemon flavor! I doubled this recipe and made it in a 9x13 pan. All four kids and husband thought it was wonderful. I did mix up a small batch of cream cheese frosting to dollop on top to help counteract the tartness. It was definitely heavenly. I think this will be a great cake to serve on Easter. It was amazing chilled.
Like others I was very worried with the dough like batter but it turned out perfectly. It is a dense cake but perfect if you love lemon. I did modify the recipe and made it gluten free.
This cake was amazing! It was so good even the fiancé went back for seconds and thirds! I made mine in a square pan then cut into little squares for easy serving. I also topped with a soft vanilla whip cream and lemon zest. This is going in my keeper files for sure!
I was a little worried at first... my batter turned out more like dough. But the cake came out wonderful. Intense lemon flavor, great texture. Perfectly old fashioned lemon cake. Great with tea or coffee.
I used a bunt pan for a different effect & loved it. Definitely lemony. I also used my lemon sauce that I use on my bread pudding as an addition for each piece. Everyone loved it.
I made these into mini cupcakes... batter tasted great Baked @ 350 for 15 minutes. Perfect. Then I glazed them. WOW. The glaze was very strong.. not in a good way either. I let them sit overnight and they did tone down quite a bit. I like them now. I dusted the tops with a bit of powdered sugar and next time, I think I will add some chopped almonds as I like that flavor combo
Great recipe, very moist and delicious! Did not change a thing! Will DEFINATELY make again!
The basic recipe is really good. The modifications I made: I used whole wheat pastry flour, 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar, 1/2 cup coconut oil, 18 oz. (3 individual serving portions) organic applesauce, 1 cup organic chopped pecans, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp. salt. The baking time was 30 minutes. The two loaves were moist with great texture and crumb.
Baked just until tester came out clean, but it was still dry. Lemon syrup was way too tart.
We loved everything about this cake. It's easy to make, and oh so moist and flavorful... and no fancy ingredients to buy and never use again! The batter is very thick and makes a dense cake, so if "light and fluffy" is what you're wanting you might want to try another recipe. I made mine according to the directions, and 45 minutes was all she needed for the knife to come out clean. This one's going in the keeper column! Thanks allrecipes.com!!
I made this because I was trying to find a dessert for dinner and I had lemons and self raising flour. I used a patterned silicone cake pan and everyone said it was really delicious. It baked fine. I added the zest with the butter as that way the oils in the zest go into the butter which is absorbed much better throughout the cake. I learned that trick from a Woman's Weekly cookbook. Fantastic cake, and very well received as dessert. I served it with whipped cream that had vanilla bean in it.
Delicious!! Just the right amount of everything! If you like lemon you will love this.
Definitely easy, delicious and worth a try. Before beginning, always read many of the reviews, positive, negative and the latest, then make up my mind. B/C there are just two of us, I also halve every recipe if possible, as it's just too much otherwise and no waste if we don't care for it. One of the wonderful assets this site offers is to alter the ingredient amounts to the number of servings one prefers. That's a bonus for me! Although, one must be careful as the changed ingredients don't always transfer to the description amounts. I altered it to six servings and still ended up with eight slices from a 10" round pie plate. Baked in a convection oven at 325 for 30 mins. Could have perhaps checked it at 25 but did not and it's still good. Next time. We do not care for so much sugar in our homemade baked goods and so the amounts are always reduced from what is written. The batter did seem a tad dry so added 1 tbsp. lemon juice to it and that made a difference as others noted the dryness. It is definitely not a batter than can be poured; it must be spread. For the syrup used 1/4 c sugar with 1 tbsp lemon juice which was just right for us...not too tart nor too sweet. Will definitely make this one again. Thank you Christina! EDIT from next day: think this one is best eaten on the day it is baked, and warm. Tried it on day two and didn't get the same taste, much more lemony. Just changed my rating from 5 to 4 stars for that reason alone.
I tried this with butter, as well as subbing the butter with coconut oil and this tastes good either way! Want to make again soon :) In the future I might make more of the syrup to pour on top/poke more holes
Agreed that this is very easy and moist and delicious. I served warm with cream and a few raspberries and a drizzle of grand marnier for the ultimate deluxe version. Many positive comments from my guests!! Making again this weekend
the only change I made was to replace the butter by 1/2 butter and 1/2 sour cream. I found the cake quite dry but not flavorful. I will be icing it to give it some humph
This cake is waaaaaay too tangy/tart. I love lemon. Lemon cake is my absolute favorite flavor of cake. The cake itself is great but the syrup is just way too much. I only used 1/2 a cup of lemon juice (because someone said that one lemon gives about 1/4 cup of juice my lemons gave me about 1/2 a cup anyway) if I would've used 3/4 cups I'm sure I would've hated it. I even tried to add more sugar than needed in the syrup just to be on the safe side. Also in the reviews people did say it was tangy but too sweet, oh no this is ALL TANG. I love lemon but on baby this cake was so close to being a dumpster baby I gotta write a warning on it. I made a vanilla flavored glaze to go over it I'm hoping that fixes it and I did add a bit of vanilla to the cake batter as well. I'm scared to taste it again now. Beyoncé needs to sponsor this cake. It's so good then the lemon pops out like BAMMM. If the lemonade album was a cake it would be this one.
This is heavenly! I remember the orange juice version I made over 20 years ago—recipe was so very popular as a covered dish dessert for church, family reunions, parties, etc. This version made with fresh lemon juice tastes as good—if not better than a lemon pie. I did make a lemon/confectioners sugar glaze to drizzle across the cake & served with freshly made whipped cream. Oh, so very good!
I made it the first time just like the recipe said absolutely delicious the second time I made it with blueberries awesome. I folded the and then in at the end so that they would be nice and whole after we bake the cake.
I used frozen lemon juice and didn't have the zest, but it still turned out great. This was an easy recipe to make and everyone really liked it. Will definitely make again.
This is terrific. Had a craving for lemon, and this sounded like mom MILs recipe. Perfect! Yummy cake which doesn't make a whole lot so there won't be leftovers, for sure
I used s stick of Irish butter, batter was thick, but the result was very delicious ,
As written, the batter was extremely thick and dense so I added about a quarter cup of sour cream and the juice from half a lemon which helped. I think I went a little overboard with the zest or something because this cake was extremely tart and the strong lemon flavor was more of a smack in the face than a tasty dessert. I love lemon cake though, so I will try this again with less lemon zest and maybe try adding another egg.
This cake is seriously heavenly! I made it with oil because I didn't have any butter and it came out so soft and moist and totally, utterly delicious. I also used only 2 lemons instead of 3 because some reviewers said it was too tangy and it came out really perfect
this was good, however although I love a burst of lemon flavor, there was something too unbalanced with the amount of tart in the glaze. The cake itself was tender and nice. I think next time I would decrease the amount of juice, and opt for more of the zest to give the lemon flavor burst without the pucker effect.
I know I am in the minority, but I did not like this cake. It did have a nice lemon flavor, but I hated the texture. It was dense and heavy. That heavy, cookie type batter should have raised a red flag. This was not a cake batter. Threw most of it out. Ugh, I hate to waste food!
Oh my this is sooooooo good! My only frustration while making it was, "a round pan", no size indicated. I used a 9" cake pan (sprayed it instead of lined it, no problem). It was barely big enough. When it rose in the oven it covered the upper edge of the pan so I put it on a plate when I poured the syrup over or it would have gone all over the counter. My husband was happy to lick the extra off the plate for me. Happy 35th anniversary dear!
The flavor of this cake was okay, not immensely lemony, and it was awfully dry. I baked it in a bundt pan for 45 min. Had I baked it that long (as called for) in an 8" or 9" pan it would have been fossilized. The batter was very thick -- much more than a lemon cake mix would be. So maybe I'll tweak this a bit next time by cooking less time, and perhaps adding some lemon extract. I thought the zest of 3 lemons would give me the strong lemon taste but it didn't. Really the lemon flavor of the cake only came from the icing...
Guys and gals liked this cake. Very lemony. Dense. I th ink I will reduce the baking time in the future.
1/25/19: This was okay. I would need to be more careful distributing the liquid into the cake next time since certain areas became too gooey.
I made this exactly as the recipe called for. It was wonderful. I made whipped cream with it & it was a big hit.
My 12 year old daughter made this as her first ever line cooking venture. It turned out great! Followed it to a tee.
I made this because I was trying to find a dessert for dinner and I had lemons and self raising flour. I used a patterned silicone cake pan and everyone said it was really delicious. It baked fine. I added the zest with the butter as that way the oils in the zest go into the butter which is absorbed much better throughout the cake. I learned that trick from a Woman's Weekly cookbook. Fantastic cake, and very well received as dessert. I served it with whipped cream that had vanilla bean in it.
This delicious lemon cake is for the serious lemon lover. It made a lemony moist cake.
Had three lemons on hand looked for something to bake. Yes it was a great choice. Came out great. I chose not to poke the holes and fill with frosting. My first time making the cake will not be the last. Wife loved it too.
Very dense cake and tart. I found the the cake to be more bread like then like a cake except for the lemon flavor which is very good I won't be making this again.
Terribly Hard. And the lemon was not equally distributed throughout the cake. The batter was very thick and nothing to add to thin it out. I added Lemon extract as well. Would not make it again.
So refreshing to see an actual cake from scratch and not out of a box. The cake turned out great. The ingredient list and the directions had different amounts of sugar. I used the amount in the directions. Additionally, I made a lemon cream cheese icing to satisfy my seven year old sweet tooth.
I followed the recipe closely and loved it, I took another reviewer's advice about mixing the zest with the sugar. Where the holes are poked and where the sauce is poured has a big impact on flavor. Mine was more concentrated at the center so I will be careful to distribute more evenly next time. I also tried to make cupcakes out of this and that was a mistake, I couldn't get the small cakes to absorb the source. I topped with a lemon frosting and found that to be a good addition.
I loved this! Yes, I am a lemon lover and I followed the directions. As the other reviewers mentioned, I added the zest into the flour mixture before adding it to the butter mixture. It IS very dense but soooo lemony. I served it with whipped cream and blueberries.
I followed the advise of another review and stirred in the lemon zest with the sugar while the eggs and butter came to room temperature. Instead of the lemon topping, I topped the cake with a blackberry sauce from another recipe on this site. This was a good cake for lemon lovers.
I think the cake was too sour although I used 3 small sized lemons.. It didn't taste as I was expecting it .. I was looking for a lemon cake recipe with strong taste of lemon but no sourness .. I will try it another time without the lemon sauce plus I will reduce the lemon zest a bit more .. I think the lemon sauce made it too sour, so without it it would be perfect for me, other than that the cake was perfect and so fluffy !
Thanks for sharing this. My mom used to make this for us. I have a lot of fresh Lemons and this was different and good for a change. Thank you.
I made this cake exactly as it is written, with the exception of using bottled lemon juice and lemon rind from the spice cabinet... I didn't have any lemons and almost always sub with these for recipes. The cake batter was very thick when I poured it into the pan, so I went and double checked I didn't miss any ingredients. After confirming, I popped it in the oven and set the timer. Thankfully, I walked into the kitchen when there was about 8 minutes remaining on the timer because I could smell it was done and would soon burn. I pulled it out at just the right time, mixed the glaze and poured it on top. Looked great. Then, I went to eat it and sure enough that thick batter was quite dry, and lacked a lemon flavor. I had planned to top it with berries and ended up sugaring them so they were nice and juicy to try and compensate. Sorta worked, but definitely want to find a better lemon cake recipe for next time!
This is the lemon cake I have been looking for for years! If you like a pronounced lemon taste, this is it. I used Meyer lemons from my tree. I used 1 c sugar in the batter and a pinch of salt, otherwise unchanged recipe. The lemon syrup I used 1 cup lemon juice. Baked in a square baking dish. Mine was done at 37 mins. Not too sweet, but sweet enough, lemony, but not tart, and buttery but not greasy. Delicious!
I actually thought this was a terrible recipe! I followed the directions exactly, other than adding the zest to the sugar before adding the butter. The cake came out very flat and EXTREMELY dry.
This cake is excellent! Light but sweet. I suggest cutting up a strawberry on the side! Delicious!
On keto diet, so I used equal parts of allulose and erythritol sugar substitutes, 5 drops of vanilla stevia, and substituted carbalose flour for regular flour. Per the carbulose flour, I had to add about 1/2 almond milk, reduced the heat to 325 and cooked for 55 minutes. Made the syrup with the erythritol sweetenere and fresh lemon juice. Next time, I think I'll skip the glaze and frost it with lemon real whipped cream.
I made this exactly as the recipe instructed except I cooked in a Bundy pan. It is very lemony and a great texture. I let cool in the pan about ten minutes then inverted. I then poked the wholes and the syrup on. Dusted with powdered sugar.
Definitely five star, easy to make and delicate. I've received nothing but compliments every time I've made this.
This has become one of our favorite desserts. It’s easy to transport and is a hit wherever I take it. I took others advice & mixed the lemon rind with the sugar the second time I made it but none of us noticed any difference. I also saw many had shorter cooking times but mine comes out fully cooked & not dry with the original cooking times. One of the few recipes that needs no modifications!
