How To Make Lemon Bundt Cake

I’ve seen a ton of lemon cake recipes online that include a box of lemon pudding mix. Funny thing is, I can’t remember ever having lemon pudding, or hearing anybody else say that they’ve had it. I’m starting to think lemon pudding mix is only used as an ingredient in other things.

I shouldn’t be so down on pudding mix, though. It’s perfect if you want a lemon-scented cake that’s so bland you can even feed it to kids who are afraid to try anything they’ve never had. But if you want a cake that actually has some flavor, you might want to try something made with real lemon, like this.

Ingredients

3 sticks butter
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup 7-up™ or Sprite™
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Glaze

2 tablespoons lemon and/or lime juice
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons lemon and/or lime zest
extra zest for decoration

Directions

Soften the butter and beat until fluffy, then add the sugar and cream them together.

Add the eggs one by one, beating after you add each one.

Beat in the flour a cup at a time, then add the soda and beat again.

Next is the lemon extract and vanilla and, you guessed it, beat again.

Yeah, a note about beating it after adding virtually every ingredient. With cakes you usually try not to over-beat the flour because it can get tough. With a pound cake recipe – which is basically what this is – that’s less of an issue. The eggs provide most of the leavening, so getting them very evenly incorporated is very important.

Then you add the flour a little at a time so it doesn’t get clumpy. After that you could probably just add everything and let it run for a minute, but 15-20 seconds after each ingredient as you measure out the next is just as easy.

Where was I? Oh yes, one last ingredient, the lemon zest.

Pour the batter into a buttered bundt pan.

Bake at 325° F for about an hour and 10 to an hour and 20 minutes. A toothpick in the center should come out not bone dry, but not sticky with batter.

Let it cool for about 10 minutes while you mix up the lemon-lime glaze. (Click that link for the step-by-step directions.) Then flip it out of the pan to cool the rest of the way.

When the cake is still a little warm, pour on the glaze.

Sprinkle on some zest for decoration.

Allow to cool, put it in the fridge if you’re in a hurry.

And that’s it.

PS: Yes, this is almost exactly what Pioneer Woman posted back in April. Look at the timestamps on my photos, though, and you’ll see I made this back in January. I’ve been saving it because lemon cake just seems better in the summer. Then Ree went and beat me to it, with a fabulous pan, too.