For the Best Lemon Pound Cake, Go Hard on the Citrus

My tastes change with the seasons. In the heart of New England’s cold, blustery winters all I want are thick stews and rich chocolatey desserts—preferably enjoyed with a blanket over my shoulders. But once spring comes, I suddenly want almost everything I eat to be lighter and brighter, preferably with a lemon flavor that’s perky enough to match the yellow daffodils popping up in my yard. So once April hits, buttery, moist homemade lemon pound cake is a staple on my countertop. It’s fairly easy to whip up—it’s made from ingredients most people already have in their fridge or pantry and it's simple to mix together, dump into a loaf pan, and bake.

My recipe here is based on my mom’s lemon pound cake I grew up eating. Like me, she’s a pound cake lover. Her lemon pound cake was a staple dessert always served with our Easter brunch spread. Even though she made it look so effortless, making a perfect lemon pound cake can come with its challenges. Baking the thick, dense batter in a tall, deep loaf pan so that the inside bakes at the same rate the outside browns requires a foolproof technique and just the right balance of ingredients so you don’t end up with a dry, squat, or burnt cake. 

And don’t forget about that lemon flavor. By my standards, any great lemon cake needs to be tart and zippy enough to make your eyes open wide and your mouth pucker when you take that first bite. Incorporating a scant sprinkling of lemon zest directly into the batter (which is all that many recipes call for) just isn’t enough to get that citrus pop I want.

With a few strategic tweaks to my family’s recipe, my lemon pound cake recipe avoids all of these possible pitfalls. It has a bold lemon flavor, a golden crust, and a buttery, dense, fine crumb that I love.

Solving the Dry Pound Cake Problem

Pound cake often gets a bad rap for being stodgy and dry. But a well made pound cake should be as smooth as marble, have a dense but creamy crumb, and be moist as it melts on your tongue. Some pound cakes don’t deliver this, and their problems usually come down to the ratio of ingredients used in the batter. Many classic pound cake recipes call for equal weights—a pound each—of sugar, butter, eggs, and flour, hence the name pound cake. This ratio is easy to remember but not ideal if you want a moist cake (more on that below). On top of the ratio issues, most traditional recipes also include no added leavening, and their rise relies on the air naturally trapped in the batter through proper creaming and mixing, which if not perfected can lead to a squat cake. And because classic pound cake recipes don't have any added liquid (no milk or cream, for example), the batter turns out especially thick, which makes them prone to drying out in the oven. 

I break many of these classic pound cake rules in this recipe, and by doing so I avoid these pitfalls. First, I’ve fine tuned the ratio of ingredients and use fewer eggs than many recipes. I also add a touch of baking powder to leaven the batter. In testing, I found that even with the proper creaming method, cakes baked without leavener routinely didn’t get the ideal lift, resulting in a squat cake that had a squished, spongy texture towards the bottom. But using one teaspoon of baking powder guarantees a proper rise, so the cake has an even texture from top to bottom. The baking powder provides a late-stage release of carbon dioxide that'll help give the cake its final lift in the oven to create the desired domed top every time.

Adding liquid beyond eggs to pound cake is not traditional. The cake has a tight, smooth crumb structure, and to get that you need a thick batter that won’t move too much as it bakes. Any added liquid would thin the batter, creating a lighter texture, more like a layer cake, which you don’t want here. But adding just a couple tablespoons of milk to the batter enhances the cake's velvety texture and adds enough moisture to guarantee the cake melts in your mouth—rest assured, this small amount of milk doesn't disrupt a proper pound cake's signature dense texture.

3 Ways to Guarantee the Brightest Lemon Flavor 

Most lemon desserts just aren't lemony enough for my tastes. Here are the three main ways I incorporate lemon into my cake so it lives up to its tart potential.

1. Use both lemon zest and juice in the cake batter and toss the zest with the sugar. It’s a no-brainer to add lemon to a lemon cake batter, right? But how much you add and how you add it makes a big difference. To start, use a combination of both zest and juice. The zest contains many flavorful oils, so using it together with lemon juice not only helps you use as much of the fruit as possible, but produces a more pronounced citrus flavor. The lemon juice also adds the acidity and brightness you’d expect in a lemon cake.

To enhance the fruit’s flavor, the zest is first rubbed with the sugar, which helps draw out the rind’s oils, releasing its bright, citrusy flavor and aroma. (It's a trick we employ in many of our lemon-forward recipes, including Genevieve's lemon curd and Daniel's spicy chile lemonade, and it's how many cooks and bartenders prepare oleo-saccharum, a lemon syrup made by muddling fruit’s peels with sugar.)

2. Brush the just baked cake with lemon syrup. A well-known trick that pastry chefs use to prevent cakes from drying out is to brush a fresh-out-of-the-oven cake with simple syrup. The cake soaks up the syrup while still warm, keeping it moister for longer. This is also a great way to incorporate more lemon flavor into the cake. Instead of using water to dissolve the sugar in the simple syrup, I use lemon juice. A generous brushing of this lemon syrup does double duty: keeping the cake moist while also adding another layer of fresh lemon flavor.

3. Finish with a lemon glaze. A thick sugary sheen over the cake isn’t just pretty, it also adds—you guessed it—even more lemon flavor. The glaze comes together quickly—all you have to do is whisk lemon juice with confectioners' sugar. It’s an easy sweet-tart finish for this cake. Unlike the lemon syrup (which is brushed on the cake while it’s still warm), the lemon glaze is poured over the cake once it is completely cool to ensure the glaze clings to the cake, creating a frosty white coating over the top. And to make sure this cake really screams lemon, a sprinkle of fresh lemon zest or candied lemon slices nestled into the glaze before it fully sets is a nice final touch.

Dusted with powdered sugar, dolloped with whipped cream, and topped with some fresh berries, this lemon pound cake is perfect for any spring celebration—or any time of year really. It would certainly brighten up a gloomy winter day or be welcome at a summer picnic.