It must be nirvana if it only requires a few simple, inexpensive ingredients and takes only minutes to prepare. Deliciously moist lemon cake that tastes great cold with coffee or served hot with cream for dessert!
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups white sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 lemons, zested
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup white sugar
- 3 lemons, juiced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a round cake pan with parchment paper.
- Beat 1 1/4 cup sugar and butter together in a bowl using an electric mixer until smooth; beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well before adding the next egg. Stir flour, lemon zest, and baking powder into creamed butter mixture until batter is smooth; pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes.
- Combine 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
- Poke holes into the top of the warm cake and pour syrup over cake. Cool slightly before cutting.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 343 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 46 g |
| Cholesterol | 87 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 168 mg |
| Sugars | 29 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
It says cake and doesn’t say pound so I thought it was a cake. Was expecting fluffy and tasty. Instead what I got was heavy, very heavy. I cooked it according to the directions and personally I think it was a bit tart. When you mix it, the mix is more like a cookie dough which I thought was odd. The knife came out clean but after I let it cool and put the glaze on it and then let it cool again it was gooey inside. 1. it was under cooked. 2. the “glaze” soaked in and made the gooey part more sloppy and gross. I attempted it put the entire thing back in the oven for 15 minutes in hopes it will help. It did but I will never make this again. Now I need to go to the store to get some whipped cream or something light to put on top to bring the heaviness down. Just not a good hit for us.
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!
The volume of the lemon glaze makes this cake VERY lemony and yummy.
I loved it! I also added some milk when it sead to milk the butter and sugar so it mixes better!
perfect! the topping was a little tart for me, I ended up with a little over 1/2 cup squeezed juice. I’m going to limit it to 1/2 next time. other than that, no changes. people at work loved it and I’m making 2 more tomorrow!
Made this today on Christmas….it turned out to be amazing….didn’t change any measurements but loved the way it turned out….thank you for sharing such a lovely recipe
Very moist! On the sweet side, could reduce some sugar. Easy to follow recipe.
followed the recipe and it turned out beautifully!!
Super easy and delicious!! Highly recommend!
Turned out really well. Didn’t make the syrup though.
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.
OMG! So good! Will be a definite repeat!
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 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.
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 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!
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.
Fantastic cakes
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 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
Our family’s new favorite! Very easy to make.