Lemon Bundt Cake Recipe: How to Make Lemon Bundt Cake

A lemon bundt cake is a domed cake with sloping sides and a bright lemon flavor from juice, zest, or extract. After baking, bundt cakes get inverted onto a serving plate to reveal a mountainous, raised doughnut shape, perfect for a cascading lemon glaze or showers of powdered sugar. The cake has a moist, flavorful crumb, sure to please lemon lovers.

A lemon bundt cake is a fantastic dessert for large gatherings, especially during the spring. Here are some general suggestions to follow when baking this sweet treat:

1. 1. Properly zest your lemons. Always zest lemons before juicing them. Using a handheld zester or the smallest holes on a box grater, grate the lemon peel, avoiding the bitter white pith. You will immediately smell a bright, fresh aroma: The zest is where all the fragrant oils reside, while the protective white pith is dry and bitter.
2. 2. Juice the lemons by hand or with a tool. Once you’ve removed the zest, it’s time to learn how to juice a lemon properly. Rolling the lemon on a hard surface helps loosen up the membrane, resulting in more juice squeezed out. You can also use a reamer or juicer—or simply cut the lemon in half and squeeze it with your hands. Another neat tip is using a skewer or toothpick to drive a deep hole into the non-stem end of the lemon rind. After pulling the skewer or toothpick out, squeeze your lemon above a receptacle and watch as a stream of fresh lemon juice releases.
3. 3. Grease the pan well. Bundt cake pans are full of nooks and crannies, so grease the pan thoroughly with a cooking spray. If you have trouble releasing the cake from the pan after baking, you risk losing all of the detail in the pan.
4. 4. Test the cake often. Bundt pans are deeper than many regular cake pans, so the cake could be brown on top but undercooked in the middle. With a toothpick or long wooden skewer, start testing the cake about forty-five minutes through baking. When the toothpick comes out of the cake with no wet batter clinging to it, it is ready to come out of the oven.
5. 5. Cool the cake right-side up. The cake bakes upside down, with the pan’s detailed design on the bottom. However, you should cool the cake right-side up to avoid crushing the design on your countertop or wire rack.
6. 6. Use a glaze. To cover the cake in a sweet topping without a thick frosting, use a glaze. A glaze falls gently over the cake, revealing and highlighting the design while adding more flavor and sweetness to the cake. Try this easy lemon glaze recipe.
7. 7. Incorporate other flavors. Lemon is a fantastic start, but it pairs well with other fruits and herbs like raspberries, blueberries, lavender, and thyme. Or, change up the citrus: Meyer lemon has a milder flavor and more floral aroma than regular lemons. Grapefruit, lime, and orange juice would work well in a bundt cake.