This lemon poppyseed pound cake will be a family favorite! Soft and tender pound cake bursting with lemon and poppyseed flavors. The lemon glaze on top is sweet, tart and delicious!
This recipe was first published May 20, 2020.
I totally adore this lemon poppyseed pound cake! Everyone who tries it agrees, it's the best pound cake recipe ever.
It's made with buttermilk and buttermilk has a way of making baked goods super moist and delicious.
It's always my preferred ingredient in baked goods, just like in these buttermilk biscuits and banana bread. Both recipes use buttermilk and both are so tender and delicious!
A lot of them lemon tart flavor in this pound cake comes from the glaze on top. It's made with powdered sugar and lemon juice to create a thick consistency glaze.
This lemon pound cake is buttery, lemony and the perfect bit of moisture but not a fall apart mess. It's really easy to make, just follow the instructions and you will be golden.
How To Get A Tender Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake
To make a pound cake moist, in my experience, is to make your pound cake with buttermilk.
Buttermilk adds a really tender crumb to baked goods and I think the texture is soft and velvety. It really turns out amazing!
If you don't have buttermilk on hand you can use this easy buttermilk substitution. 1 cup of milk to 1 tbsp lemon juice. Since you are making a lemon pound cake, you should have lemons on hand anyway.
Another important tip on getting a tender pound cake is to not over mix your ingredients. Any of them. Stir them just enough to get it mixed.
If you go nuts with beating your batter to try and get it smooth then it will be dense. Not cool. Some lumps are fine, just leave it alone.
The same rule of thumb goes for pancakes and waffles, if you over mix them they won't be as light and fluffy.
How To Make The Lemon Icing Glaze
Like I mentioned, the glaze on top is only two ingredients, powdered sugar and lemon juice.
How you get it nice and thick is simple. Add a splash of lemon juicy little by little to the powdered sugar, stirring it up.
If you don't add enough lemon juice then the icing just tastes like pure powdered sugar. I've tried it this way (by omitting the lemon juice) and the pound cake did not have that same wow factor as when I put a good amount of lemon juice in the glaze.
You'll want to add the lemon glaze on your pound cake after you remove it from the loaf pan. Otherwise it will get stuck in the pan after chilling and it's such a mess.
Or you can line your pan with parchment paper, it will be no problem getting the cake out if you do.
As it sets on top of the cake, it hardens, giving you that picture perfect glaze. The glaze actually tastes better the next day. The whole cake does, sitting gives the flavors time to come out.
The layer of glaze is pretty small, just enough that you have some icing but not more than you really need (I'm looking at you, 10 foot tall Starbucks iced lemon loaf cake).
Personally I think this recipe is way better than Starbucks lemon loaf cake.
How To Make Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake
Start by getting your batter together.
Remember a few key tips. Do not over mix your batter and don't skimp on the lemon juice or lemon zest. You need the full amounts required.
This is about 2 very juicy lemons but could be up to 4 lemons that may not be very juicy. It's always better to get a few extra just in case.
Sift all of your dry ingredients together.
Mix together your butter and sugar. Adding in your vanilla and eggs one at a time. After mixing in the eggs the batter may look curdled and that's okay, don't try to keep mixing. Just leave it and it will come together.
Mix together the remainder of your wet ingredients which is the buttermilk and lemon juice.
Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk/lemon juice into your wet ingredients. You only need to do this a few times, don't spend all day adding a tiny bit at a time. Two additions of each is just fine.
Don't worry if the batter isn't smooth as silk, lumps are okay. Do not over mix your batter!
Line a baking pan with a sheet of parchment paper and pour in your batter. Bake it for a total of 1 hour at 325 degrees, rotating the pan half way through baking.
After it's out of the oven let it sit and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once the cake is cool to the touch you can spread on your glaze. If the pound cake is too warm then the glaze will just melt off of it, so make sure to let it cool down first.
More Baked Goods Recipes
- Blueberry Muffins With Lemon Zest - the best blueberry muffins
- Perfect Soft English Scones – easy to make and so delicious
- 3 Cheese Stuffed Soft Pretzel – extra cheesy goodness you will love these!
- Better Than Starbucks Pumpkin Scones – That’s right, I said it, better than starbucks
- Maple Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls - these are insanely good, the cream cheese frosting on top is so luscious
- Buttery Soft Pretzels Without Baking Soda Bath – quick and easy no baking soda bath recipe
- Coffee Cake Bars With Streusel Topping – just like eating coffee cake but way less effort needed
- Pecan Sticky Buns – extra gooey
Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake With Lemon Glaze
This lemon poppyseed pound cake will be a family favorite! Soft and tender pound cake bursting with lemon and poppyseed flavors. The lemon glaze on top is sweet, tart and delicious!
Ingredients
- ½ c butter, room temp
- 1 c sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs, room temp
- 2 c flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- ¼ c lemon juice
- ½ c buttermilk, room temp
- 2 ½ tsp poppyseeds
lemon glaze
- 1 c powdered sugar
- lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325
- Grease a loaf pan with butter, sprinkle in some flour and cover all the sides, shaking it around - turn it upside down and tap to get excess flour out.
- Beat the butter and sugar for 3 minutes then stir in the vanilla. Turn the mixer to low, add in one egg at a time. Stir in the lemon zest.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and poppyseeds. Combine the buttermilk and lemon juice. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients into your bowl, mixing on low. Add the batter to the loaf pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Open the oven door and turn the loaf pan 180 degrees, now bake an additional 30 minutes (the lemon loaf will bake a total of 60 minutes). When a toothpick comes out clean, it's done. Transfer to a wire rack, let it cool an hour.
- Dust a little flour on your hands and turn the pan over, it should slide out of the pan, set this on the wire rack and continue cooling another hour or two.
- To make the glaze combine sifted powdered sugar with lemon juice until it reaches your desired consistency (thick or thin, your choice). Pour this over the loaf. Cut into even pieces.
Notes
Just a tip - I find it tastes even better after sitting overnight in the fridge
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 325Total Fat: 11gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 81mgSodium: 431mgCarbohydrates: 52gFiber: 1gSugar: 32gProtein: 5g
This information comes from online calculators. Although moderncrumb.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Sherri Bono
can you make this recipe into muffins?
Tara Moore
I haven't tried it but I don't see why not. I would bake them at 425 for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.