My easy Lemon Bundt Cake from Scratch is made completely with pantry staples and no box mix. With fresh lemon and sour cream for a tangy and tender crumb topped with a creamy, sweet glaze, this dessert is absolutely perfect!
Cake lovers will also go crazy for this Blueberry Cake, Carrot Cake Bread, old fashioned Oatmeal Cake with Vanilla Sauce, and Cream Cheese Lemon Crumb Cake.
Why This Recipe Works
Moist & Tender: The combination of the lemon and sour cream in my lemon bundt cake recipe make this cake super moist and tender. Plus, I like to add a lemon syrup to the top of the cake which the cake soaks up and makes it even more moist. I mean, this cake is honestly melt in your mouth good. Plus, who doesn’t love a beautiful bundt cake?
Perfectly Balanced Flavors: I think that lemon + anything sweet is a match made in heaven. Since lemon is so tart and refreshing, it really lifts the sugar and cream cheese frosting here and makes this cake so enjoyable to eat. It isn’t overly sweet or heavy thanks to the citrus flavors! I use both lemon juice and lemon zest in this recipe. The lemon zest is what really lends a natural lemon flavor so don’t skip it!
Ingredients
My lemon bundt cake from scratch recipe uses ingredients you most likely have on hand, for ease. Here’s a list of what you’ll need.
For the Lemon Bundt Cake:
- Butter: Make sure your butter is at room temperature here so it mixes well with the rest of the ingredients.
- Sugar: Regular granulated sugar is what makes this cake nice and sweet!
- Eggs: Eggs at room temperature are best when baking.
- Sour Cream: Sour cream is added for moisture and a bit of tang!
- Lemons: You will need to zest the lemons and set aside the juice of one of them for the frosting.
- Flour: All purpose flour is good to use here. If you need a gluten-free cake, replace it with a measure for measure flour like this one.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: Baking powder and baking soda both work to lift the cake in the oven.
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Light Cream Cheese: A bit of light cream cheese adds a creamy texture and tangy flavor!
- Butter: A little bit of butter balances the flavors of the lemon and sugar.
- Lemon Zest & Lemon Juice: You will need the zest of about 1/3 lemon and juice of one lemon to get a lemony flavor.
- Powdered Sugar: Powder sugar makes the perfect texture frosting. This will be more of a pourable glaze than a thick frosting.
Here’s How to Make It
Step by Step Instructions
- Preheat & Prep: Preheat the oven to 320 F and prep your bundt cake tin by either spraying it with cooking spray, or greasing it really well with butter and coating it with a thick dusting of powdered sugar. (not pictured)
- Mix Wet Ingredients: In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and 2 cups of sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, followed by the sour cream and the lemon zest, and the juice of 5 of the lemons. Don’t worry if the mixture curdles at this point. (photos 1-3)
- Add Flour: Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder and baking soda, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed until you have a smooth batter. (photo 4)
- Fill Bundt Tin: Spoon into the prepared bundt tin and gently drop the cake down onto the countertop a few times to knock out any air bubbles and to make sure the batter gets into all of the cracks if your bundt tin has an elaborate swirl. (photo 5)
- Bake: Bake for 50-55 minutes until the top is golden and a cake tester or skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes away clean. (photo 6)
- Make Lemon Syrup: Meanwhile, in a small saucepan combine the remaining lemon juice with the 2 tbsp of sugar over a medium heat until the sugar has all dissolved. Set aside. (photo 7)
- Cool Cake & Brush with Syrup: Allow the bundt cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack and brushing all over with the lemon syrup. (photo 8)
- Frost: While the cake cools, to make the frosting beat together the cream cheese, butter, lemon zest and juice until smooth. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar to create a glaze which you can pour over the cake once it has cooled. (photos 9-10)
Expert Tips
Lemon bundt cake from scratch is straight forward to make, but here are some tips to ensure the process is as easy as possible!
- Avoid the cake sticking by greasing well! If you have ever made a bundt cake, you know that they are notorious for sticking. So grease well to ensure that your lemon bundt cake will come out easily!
- Don’t over mix the batter. Over mixing the batter after the flour is added can result in a more dense, tough cake. Mix the wet ingredients with the flour until just combined to ensure a tender crumb!
- Only allow the lemon cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes! If you let the cake cool entirely in the tin, it will continue cooking in the hot tin and could become over cooked and dry.
- Don’t have a bundt pan? No worries, just divide the batter into two loaf pans for a lemon cake loaf instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a few different ways to successfully zest lemons. You can use a microplane if you have one and zest the lemon on there. Or, you can use a box grater using the fine side of the grater. In either case, you do have to use some muscle to get a good amount of zest off of the lemons!
Definitely! Freeze the cake before glazing it. You can freeze the whole cake or portions of the cake by wrapping them well in plastic wrap and freezing for up to 3 months. You can thaw in the fridge overnight before glazing the cake.
More Dessert Recipes to Try
- Easy Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream Cheese Lemon Crumb Cake
- Blueberry Muffins
- Cream Cheese Lemon Bars
- Perfect No Bake Cheesecake
Did you make this recipe? FANTASTIC. Please rate the recipe below and be sure to tag me on social when you share a photo – I love seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
Lemon Bundt Cake from Scratch
Ingredients
For the Lemon Bundt Cake
- 2 sticks butter - room temperature
- 2 cups sugar - plus 2 tbsp
- 4 large eggs
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 6 unwaxed lemons - zested and juiced with the juice of 1 lemon set aside
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
For the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 oz light cream cheese - at room temperature
- 1 oz butter - at room temperature
- ½ tsp lemon zest - approx 1/3 of a lemon
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 320 F and prep your bundt tin by either spraying it with cooking spray or greasing it really well with butter and coating it in a thick dusting of powdered sugar.
- In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and 2 cups of sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, followed by the sour cream and the lemon zest, and the juice of 5 of the lemons. Don't worry if the mixture curdles at this point.
- Gradually mix in the flour, baking powder and baking soda, scraping down the sides as needed until you have a smooth batter.
- Spoon into the prepared bundt tin and gently drop the cake down onto the countertop a few times to knock any air bubbles to make sure the batter gets into all the cracks if your bundt tin has an elaborate swirl.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes until the top is golden and a cake tester or skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes away clean.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan combine the remaining lemon juice with the 2 tbsp of sugar over medium heat until all of the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.
- Allow the bundt cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack and brushing all over with the lemon syrup.
- While the cake cools, to make the frosting beat together the cream cheese, butter, lemon zest and the juice until smooth. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar to create a glaze which you can pour over the cake once it has cooled.
Overall a good cake. I made this exactly as directed except I used shortening and powdered sugar to coat the pan. My cake came out of the pan fairly easily but a lining of cake was left all around. This was the first time I used powered sugar instead of flour to line the pan. Maybe that was the reason? Also, my frosting was thick and instead of a drizzle, it was an icing on the cake. I tried to thin it using more lemon juice but I guess I didn’t use enough. I will try this cake again. Thank you!
I agreed about the consistency of the glaze so I added juice of 1/2 lemon
My question is what measurement of lemon juice did you use? My smaller lemons yielded 4 T, my larger lemons a little or 5 T. Yet, when I looked it up it said it is usual to get 2-3 T/ lemon, so that is what I used. Normally, I am not so detailed, but my cake took 67 minutes to get done and I am wondering if the amount of lemon juice is tge issue. Thank you!
The 5 lemons that go in the cake yield about a cup. So each lemon gives about 3 1/2 tablespoons. You may have needed to bake the cake longer due to your oven not being hot enough. Make sure to let your oven heat up completely and don’t keep it open too long while putting the cake in and don’t keep opening it while it’s baking. Each time the oven is open you loose heat and the temperature of the oven goes down, which messes with how the cake bakes.
I looked at the recipe, and it says to brush the cake with lemon syrup. Is this something you buy at the store?
No, it’s the lemon juice and sugar mixture you make in step 6 🙂
Question- Is the recipe for the frosting accurate? Only 1/2 t of lemon juice? Impossible to glaze. I added more juice but it doesn’t look very pretty. Shall dust and serve with blueberries
It’s correct as written. For a visual, there’s a video of this recipe being made in this post. You can also try and add more if you’d like the glaze to be thinner 🙂
Can I make this lemon cake in small Bundt pans instead and would I need to change the cooking time or anything?
I’m sorry this recipe hasn’t been tested with mini bundt pans but I’m sure you could! I would start with baking them for 20-25 minutes, keeping an eye on them. I would love to hear how it goes after you try it!