Happy Birthday Lemon Bundt Cake Recipe for Bountiful Cookbook
Enjoy this flavorful lemon bundt cake recipe for breakfast, brunch or dessert. The bright flavors of fresh lemon are fantastic and a reader favorite! We’re celebrating a birthday today! Our cookbook, Bountiful, is finally released and we can give a big exhale to the last year and a half of writing, photographing, recipe developing and eating-till-we-drop.
In the cookbook, we actually don’t have any cake recipes, however for this occasion, we made cake. A lemon bundt cake for Bountiful, our 3.7 pounds and 10.6 x 8.5 x 1.3 inch baby. We learned so much over this process of cookbook-making. First off: don’t try to eat everything you make because you’ll quickly feel how tight your pants will get. Find some neighbors to pass the goodies to. Make friends with your mail man. What ever you do, find good-eaters. They are as important as your recipe testers. Secondly, regardless of what topic you’re writing about, try to incorporate a cocktail recipe in there, some how. Trust us, after hours editing the manuscript, recipe details, conversations and photo editing, you’ll NEED that evening inebriation.
So do we have cocktail recipes in Bountiful too? Of course we do. Seven, to be exact.
Lemon Bundt Cake Recipe
Now the next stage starts: meeting all of you who we kinda-know-but-really-don’t. How odd it is to tell our parents that we’ll be traveling the country to meet our friends that we’ve never met before. This is the internet life, no doubt. It’ll be fun to finally meet up with all of you who have supported us through the years on the blog.
If you’re free, stop by one of our signings and give us a hug. We want to see your purty faces.
Every single one of you have a special place in our lives. This blog wouldn’t be as rewarding without you. And the book? Bountiful? We’ll we wouldn’t have had the inspiration to make it without your support and encouragement.
Thank you a million times for making our lives so incredibly inspired and fulfilling.
You all mean so much to us. And in the meantime, here’s a slice of a wonderful and tender bundt cake for you all.
Happy Day!
Todd, Diane, Sierra and Lexi
Where to buy the book online? Here’s also a list of some great independent bookstores in areas we’ve visited. Please support them!
Amazon
Indiebound
Book Larder, Seattle
Book Soup and Vromans, Los Angeles
Kings English, Salt Lake City, Utah
Powells Books, Portland, Oregon
Barnes and Nobles
Insanely Moist Lemon Bundt Cake with Lemon Icing - Updated Version
Ingredients
cake ingredients
- 3 cups (375 g) flour
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) kosher salt or sea salt
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter , (2 sticks) softened
- 2.5 cups (500 g) sugar
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) canola oil
- zest from 3-4 large lemons
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
- 5 eggs
lemon glaze ingredients
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
lemon icing ingredients
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice , or as needed
Instructions
Make Lemon Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- In a bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- In an another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes if by stand mixer.
- Beat in the oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. On the lowest speed, gradually beat in the eggs until just incorporated. Mix in the flour mixture, until just combined.
- Coat a 12-cup bundt pan or two 6-cup bundt pans with cooking spray.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Firmly tap the pan against the countertop to knock out any bubbles.
- Bake on the middle oven rack for 50-70 minutes for a 12-cup bundt pan (45-65 minutes for two 6-cup bundt pans), or until a toothpick comes out clean near the center. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then loosen the cake by tapping it against the counter. Invert the cake onto a serving platter.
Make the Lemon Glaze:
- Stir together lemon glaze ingredients (lemon juice & sugar - if needed, heat them briefly to help dissolve the sugar). Brush on the hot cake until all of the glaze is absorbed (you may not end up using all of the glaze). After it has cooled, if serving within a day or two continue to final step, or if serving later in the week, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve (keeps 4-5 days wrapped in the fridge).
Make Lemon Icing & Serve:
- On the day you are ready to serve (or the night before), take the bundt out of the fridge to come up to room temperature. In a microwaveable bowl (in case you need to warm it to help it pour better), whisk together the icing ingredients (powdered sugar & lemon juice), adjusting the lemon juice amount to make the icing fairly thick but pourable, however not too runny. If the icing is close to the thickness you want, but still a touch too thick to pour, warm it slightly and it will become more fluid when it cools off (perfect for icing the bundt cake). Drizzle the icing over the top of the bundt cake and serve when the icing sets.
Notes
Nutrition Information per Serving
Insanely Moist Lemon Bundt Cake with Vanilla Icing (original version)
Ingredients
cake ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups (345g) flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- 1 1/4 cups (285g) unsalted butter
- 3 cups (600g) sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) canola oil
- zest from 4 large lemons
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 6 eggs
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
lemon glaze ingredients
- 1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
vanilla icing ingredients
- 1 cup (120g) confectioners sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Equipment
- Bundt Pan
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt for at least 20 seconds. Set aside.
- In a mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes (if the bowl does not feel cool while creaming, place it in the freezer for 5 minutes, then continue creaming).
- Beat in the oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. On the lowest speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just incorporated. Mix in the flour mixture in three stages, until just combined. Whip the heavy cream just past the soft peak stage. Stir in about 1/4 of the whipped cream into the batter, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream until just combined.
- Coat a 12-cup bundt pan or two 6-cup bundt pans with cooking spray or with butter and flour (recipe will work in 24 fluted brioche tins for mini cakes too).
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan (or brioche tins). Drop the pan from about 4" above the counter to knock out any bubbles.
- Bake on the middle oven rack for 50-60 minutes (about 20 minutes for small tins), or until a toothpick comes out clean near the center. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then loosen the cake by knocking it against the counter. Invert the cake onto a serving platter.
- Stir together lemon glaze ingredients (if needed, heat them briefly to help dissolve the sugar). Brush on the hot cake until all of the glaze is absorbed. After it has cooled, if serving within a day or two continue to final step, or if serving later in the week, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve (keeps 4-5 days wrapped in the fridge).
- On the day you are ready to serve (or the night before), take the bundt out of the fridge to come up to room temperature. In a microwaveable bowl (in case you need to warm it to help it pour better), whisk together the icing ingredients (powdered sugar, vanilla extract & heavy cream), adjusting the heavy cream amount to make the icing fairly thick but pourable, however not too runny. If the icing is close to the thickness you want, but still a touch too thick to pour, warm it slightly and it will become more fluid when it cools off (perfect for icing the bundt cake). Drizzle the icing over the top of the bundt cake and serve when the icing sets.
I’ve made this cake several times and it’s now my family’s go-to. I recently upped the ante a bit for my aunt’s birthday. I sliced the cake into two layers and added lemon curd in the middle, then changed the frosting to be powdered sugar and lemon juice, rather than cream. The result is outrageously delicious. Add some mini pompoms and bunting for the ultimate birthday cake.
I made this for Easter and it turned out wonderful! It was my first bundt cake and it was so easy and tasted perfectly sweet and tart!
I am making it again for my mother’s birthday and I was curious about the icing- when I made it before the icing was kind of blah and I could not get it turn out pretty enough! Do you have any techniques with put the frosting on?
Icing seems to vary each day in response to the weather. Some days thick, others runny. If it is too thick, we’ll warm it gently before icing, and if it is too thin then we’ll chill it a touch first.
Do you think this recipe would work in ANY bundt pan? I’m going to see this recipe to make my first-ever (!!!) bundt cake. But, I have the swirl bundt pan:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/swirl-bundt-pan
I’m a little nervous, just since you said the cake is so moist. Think it will un-mold from this pan easily enough? 🙂
This lovely cake is just baking in the oven now and is destined for my sister’s birthday party tomorrow night. Thanks for a great recipe!
Your cake looks amazing, did it twice already although the taste is wonderful and everyone ate it.
Are you baking it in a bundt mold? This recipe isn’t make for a regular cake. The ratios are off for anything other than in a bundt mold.
When it comes to food, I like changing the recipes, some ingredients I like more, some less. When it comes to desserts I am out of my depth…so it was a challenge making your cake, but I love lemons, lemon bars is another favourite treat. I made the cake two days ago and I also made the syrup and stopped there so I could see the result, next time I will also make the glaze because your cake was amazing! The best way to describe it is like “wet velvet”, the texture was amazing, it was not soggy, the smell of the lemon got to my nose as I was bringing a piece to my mouth and you should have seen the look on the face of my nephew, he is 10 and I make lemon syrup in the summer for him, so he can make his own lemonade, big eyes and an exclamation with a question mark…can this cake be so good? thank you
Congratulations! Your work is inspirational for me. Best of luck.
I made this cake last weekend and absolutely loved its lemon-scented texture. The book looks fantastic too – congratulations and thank you being a source of inspiration.
Absolutely gorgeous Diane and Todd – can’t wait to get my copy, congratulations! xx
The cake sounds fabulous! Guess what? I just ordered Bountiful — so excited to see it!