It’s January 5th, you guys are cool to be back to sweets again right? I tried to crank out a healthier recipe for you today, but then I made this amazing pound cake over the weekend and I just couldn’t wait to share. I do have some non-dessert recipe plans for this month, but for today it’s all about this super luscious lemon-y cake.
You may notice a trend on the blog in terms of quick breads/loaf cakes. I like to find my all-time favorite recipe- really make sure it’s perfect and then reiterate to you guys until you immediately make it. So far I have The Best Banana Bread (ever,) Gingerbread, and Easy Pumpkin Loaf. A classic, super moist, super velvety Lemon Pound cake was an obvious addition to this list don’t you think?
This cake is super lemon-y, and the addition of yogurt makes it just over-the top good. The texture is unreal. On it’s own, the cake isn’t actually overly sweet, but I drenched it in a lemon syrup and then an lemon glaze on top of that. Trust me- the combo of both is to die for. Can you tell I love this cake!?
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar, plus ¼ cup for glaze
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup lemon juice for cake, plus ¼ cup for syrup and 2 tablespoon for glaze
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- zest of one lemon
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or you can use a hand mixer,) cream the butter and cup of sugar until smooth Add the eggs one and a time followed by the vanilla.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until almost combined. Fold in the lemon juice, zest and yogurt, finish mixing on low until combined. (Batter won't be perfectly smooth but that's Ok.)
- Pout batter into a buttered/floured 9 inch loaf pan. Bake at 325F for 75-90 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Stir together ¼ cup of lemon juice and ¼ cup sugar until sugar has dissolved.
- Gradually add the lemon juice to the powdered sugar until desired drizzling consistency is reached.
- Turn the warm cake onto a wire rack and brush all over with the syrup. (Do this when the cake is still warm! Drizzle with the glaze. Serve warm or room temperature.
Rachel @ Bakerita says
This sounds amazing, especially with that syrup AND glaze! OMG, lemon heaven. Gotta bake this one up and share with my lemon-loving mom, she’ll be in heaven! Pinned :)
Susan P says
Your baking/cooking always looks amazing! Beautiful photography. What do you do with all these goodies. You can’t possibly eat it all and stay so thin!
Tricia says
so so beautiful audra. i brought back 10 meyer lemons from my sis in law’s tree…..i’m tempted to make a few of these loaves with that! can’t wait to see you in person by the way!
Tricia says
so so beautiful audra. i brought back 10 meyer lemons from my sis in law’s tree…..i’m tempted to make a few of these loaves with that! can’t wait to see you in person by the way!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar says
Pound cakes like this make my heart beat faster. I just love a good cake that is made simply like this!
Lisa | Sweet 2 Eat Baking says
Happy 2015, Audra. Hope you and the fam had a wonderful Christmas and New Year.
Healthier desserts? What are those? :lol: But in all honesty, this looks like it tastes phenomenal. Bring on the pound cake fest!
Elisa @ Insalata di sillabe says
I love anything lemon-y so you can bet this loaf drenched in lemon syrup and then finished with lemon glaze looks like a dream come true to me!
xo, Elisa
Joanne says
I always have room for dessert, especially if we’re talking something sweet-tart and ultra lemony! This sounds great to me.
francesca says
I make something similar with pistachios in a bundt – the lemon is so so lovely and the yogurt does this great thing for the density of the cake. One bowl baking is THE bestest.
Mona says
Looks and sounds divine….I have this in the oven right now! Just wondering, are the lemon juice and sugar for the syrup supposed to be boiled/heated?
Audra says
You know I didn’t do that. You can though!
Lynna says
This looks fabulous!! I love lemon flavored desserts.
Céline from Switzerland says
I just baked it this morning and it is soooooo good!!!!!! Thank you so much for sharing such amazing yet simple receipes!!!! I only had almond greek yogurt in my fridge but it worked just fine as well :-)
Shailaja Desai says
This looks divine!!!
Tracey says
I made this yesterday for my Valentine Day dessert because my mom loves lemon. She adored it. I did heat the syrup to dissolve the sugar. I also added a drop of lemon extract to the glaze to amp up the lemon flavor since there wasn’t rind in the glaze. I would definitely make this again.
Anna says
This was so good. It’s almost like a lemon square in cake form. I made it for the people at work and they loved it. I halved the recipe using a mini-loaf pan and added vanilla bean to the glaze. Perfection!
Melissa says
Made this on Sunday. Mid-way through the recipe I realized I actually DIDN’T have any Greek yogurt and I only had 3 eggs. I subbed heavy cream and kept it at 3 eggs…easily the best lemon pound cake I’ve ever had. And I didn’t even put syrup or glaze on it. Omg must make again.
Judy says
Could you make this in a bundt plan?
Audra says
Yes I don’t see why not!
Brett says
Thank you for this recipe. I tried it yesterday. It makes a lovely lemony pound cake.
I needed 4 lemons in total for the lemon juice in the batter, syrup, and glaze. One individual yogurt cup (5.3 oz net weight) contains slightly more than the 1/2 cup of yogurt that the recipe specifies.
Katie says
Hi! Salted or unsalted butter?
Audra says
Always unsalted!
Dorianne says
Can I replace the all purpose flour with self-raising one? (As this is what I have at the moment) & if I do that do I still use the baking powder?
Barb Hollis says
They all look delicious, is going to be hard which one to pick first!
L says
My Greek yogurt is 2%. Do you think that’s enough fat to create a tender loaf? Or should I try to find one higher in fat?
Suzanne says
This looks so good! Can I use sour cream instead of yogurt?
Vanessa says
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
Michelle says
This was really delicious! I’m going to make it again