Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake is a classic pound cake recipe with the addition of fresh lemon! Buttermilk gives this Lemon Pound Cake a wonderful texture and everyone loves the bright flavor of the lemon glaze. It’s the perfect buttermilk pound cake recipe!

Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake is one of the most incredible lemon cakes I have ever tried!  I served it with sliced sweetened strawberries on top and everyone raved – even my husband who doesn’t quite share my fondness for lemon desserts. It is gorgeous too, especially if you make it in a bundt pan as shown in the pictures.

How to make our Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake Recipe

I used to really struggle with making bundt cakes, until I learned a few tricks! Now they’re one of my favorite types of cakes to make because not only are they really easy, but they’re so pretty. Here’s what I do:

• Use a high quality bundt cake pan. Not all bundt cake pans are the same! You want a heavy one and I prefer a classic shape, as opposed to the super fancy pans. They’re just easier as you don’t have to worry about heavily greasing a million facets. I love my “Original Nordic Ware Pro 12 Cup Bundt Cake Pan.”
• Grease the bundt cake pan well. You can spray with non-stick spray and then flour the pan, you can grease it by hand with shortening or butter. Or you can take a short cut and use the non-stick spray specifically for baking– it’s the BEST! Since I’ve started using this on my bundt cake pan I haven’t had a single issue with sticking. You can find it on the baking aisle of nearly every major grocery store. I know that Wilton also makes a “Cake Release” product but I haven’t tried it. I imagine it works well too!
• Fully cook and then fully cool your bundt cake. Releasing the cake from the bundt cake pan is more difficult if you’ve undercooked your cake AND if you’re trying to get the cake out of the pan before cooling it enough. If you’re not sure if you cake is fully cooked, you can always test the internal temperature. It should read 210 degrees F. Once it’s perfectly baked, remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack for about 30 minutes. I prefer a cooling rack over cooling cakes on hot pads because cooling racks allow air to circulate better around the entire cake, so it cools faster. You cake shouldn’t be cold, but it should be cool enough to handle. Place a plate on top of the cake, facing down, then overturn the entire cake. The cake should release on to the plate.
• Bake pound cakes a day in advance! Pound cakes really taste better a day or two after they’re baked, so if you have time, bake them, release them from the pan and then cover them in an airtight container and let the flavors develop. Then, prior to serving, drizzle with glaze or frost as you’d like and serve.

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Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake ingredients

Here’s what you need to make our Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake:

–2 1/2 cups white sugar

–1 1/2 cups butter, softened

–4 eggs

–3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

–1/2 teaspoon salt

–1/2 teaspoon baking soda

–1 cup buttermilk

–2 TBSP lemon juice

–1 TBSP lemon zest

To make the Lemon Glaze:

–2 cups powdered sugar

–2 TBSP softened butter

–2 TBSP lemon juice

–2 tsp lemon zest + more for garnish on top (about 1 TBSP total)

–1 TBSP milk

How to make Lemon Pound Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt cake pan. (I’ve also made pound cake in a bread pan and it turned out beautifully! It needs to be a large one like this Norpro 12″ Bread pan though.)
2. Beat white sugar and 1 1/2 cups butter together in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, thoroughly beating each egg into the butter mixture before adding the next.
3. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture; mix well. Pour in 1/2 the buttermilk and beat until combined. Repeat adding the remaining flour mixture and buttermilk, beating well after each addition, and ending with the flour mixture. Stir lemon juice and zest into batter. Batter should be very smooth and have a silky texture- almost as if it was whipped. Pour batter into prepared cake pan.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F and bake for 70-75 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cake platter or plate.
5. To make glaze, beat powdered sugar, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons butter and lemon zest together in a bowl until glaze is smooth. Once cake has fully cooled, pour the glaze over the cake, letting some drizzle down the sides and into the center. Top with additional lemon zest, if desired. 

If you enjoyed this Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake, you’ll love these other popular cake recipes:

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