Lemon Bundt Cake, or Italian Lemon Cream Cake, is bursting with lemon flavor and makes a great breakfast cake! It’s fast and easy, and beautiful too.
If you love bundt cakes be sure to try our chocolate zucchini cake recipe. Or give our classic pistachio cake (made in a bundt pan) a try soon.
Why This Lemon Cake is Best
Breakfast cake. Yes, you heard me right. Who doesn’t love a big slice of cake with their morning cup of coffee?
While some people will just cut themselves a slice of leftover chocolate cake, I prefer a slightly less sweet hunk of cake myself in the morning.
Similar to having cinnamon coffee cake, today’s Lemon Bundt Cake recipe is a soft, yet sturdy cake that’s perfect for dunking. Or spread some homemade lemon curd over the top for an extra burst of citrus flavor.
Yes, this can make a delicious dessert as well, but why not have Lemon Cream Cake for breakfast and Ding Dong Cake for dessert? Best of both worlds.
Today’s Italian Lemon Cream cake gets its name from the fresh cream in the batter. For a little bit more moisture (and flavor), try drizzling some fresh cream over the top after baking too. Less sweet than frosting, but SO delicious!
- BIG lemon flavor in each bite
- Soft and moist, but sturdy too
- Perfect for enjoying ANY time of day
If you love lemon desserts, you’ve got to give our lemon brownies and gooey lemon cookies a try next!
What You’ll Need
- Butter – I prefer to use unsalted butter in all of my baking so I can control the sodium. If you only have salted, that’s fine, just omit the added kosher salt in the recipe.
- Flour – Regular all purpose flour works great for this cake recipe. Be sure to measure it correctly.
- Powdered Sugar – Also called confectioner’s sugar, this brings the sweetness and also incorporates well into the batter.
- Heavy Cream – Fresh cream is needed for the batter of the cake and is also delicious drizzled over top of the cooled cake when serving.
- Lemons – You will use both the zest and the juice. Use our guide on how to zest a lemon for best results.
Just How Easy is this Cake
Recipe prep. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan generously. Melt butter and set aside while you make the batter.
Batter prep.
- In a bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder and kosher salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add in powdered sugar and beat again until fluffy.
Finish batter. Gently fold in the flour mixture, while alternating with the heavy whipping cream. I did this in about 3 additions. Fold in the melted butter, lemon zest, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
Bake and cool. Bake cake for 35-40 minutes then cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a second rack or a cake plate and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy with fresh cream over the top!
Just add cream
It wouldn’t be an Italian cream cake without the cream.
In my family, we love serving cake in a bowl of milk. However most people find this absurd, ha.
A drizzle of cream over the cake is a more sophistacated way to add milk, without being “absurd” about it. It adds moisture and flavor, and I highly suggest you try it at least once!
Tips and Tricks
- Grease your pan thoroughly. I like to use homemade “goop” or baking spray that has flour already in it. Be generous, as there’s nothing worse than a cake that sticks.
- Use a good quality bundt pan. Norpro or Nordic Ware are my pans of choice, as I find they are great at keeping temperatures even and not browning too quickly (thinner, cheaper pans get TOO brown on outside).
- Do not over beat as you alternate the flour and cream. Mix until blended, then repeat… I use a wooden spoon for this, not an electric mixer.
- Get the most juice out of a lemon by rolling it on a counter top a few times to soften it. This releases more juice when you squeeze it. If you keep your lemons in the fridge, you can also microwave them for a few seconds to soften them up a bit.
- Let your cake cool in the pan about 10 minutes before inverting it onto a cake plate. This allows the sides to release slightly on their own and firm up so it doesn’t stick!
Recipe FAQs
Let cool completely, then keep the bundt cake covered at room temperature until ready to serve. It will keep for up to 4 days.
Yes! Use my guide on how to freeze cake. You can freeze this cake whole or in slices.
This type of cake is more dense than a traditional fluffy cake and more closely resembles a pound cake, just a little less sweet. It’s a great cake to serve alongside breakfast or brunch with coffee or tea.
More Cake recipes
- German Chocolate Cake
- Carrot Bundt Cake
- Lemon Ricotta Cake
- Streusel Bundt Cake
- Banana Cake
- Peanut Butter Cake
- Banana Pudding – not a cake, but AMAZING
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Lemon Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 large eggs
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ⅔ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 lemons zested
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Toppings
- Extra dusting of powdered sugar and splash of fresh heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan generously.
- Melt butter and set aside while you continue make the batter.
- In a bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add in powdered sugar and beat again until fluffy.
- Gently fold in the flour mixture, while alternating with the heavy whipping cream. I did this in about 3 additions.
- Fold in the melted butter, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
- Bake cake for 35-40 minutes, cool on rack in pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto a second rack or a cake plate and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy with fresh cream over the top!
Notes
- Use our guide on how to zest a lemon for best tips and tricks.
- Grease your pan thoroughly. I like to use homemade “goop” or baking spray that has flour already in it. Be generous, as there’s nothing worse than a cake that sticks.
- Use a good quality bundt pan. Norpro or Nordic Ware are my pans of choice, as I find they are great at keeping temperatures even and not browning too quickly (thinner, cheaper pans get TOO brown on outside)
- Let your cake cool in the pan about ten minutes before inverting it onto a cake plate. This allows the sides to release slightly on their own, and firm up so it doesn’t stick!
- Do not over beat as you alternate the flour and cream. Mix until blended, then repeat…I use a wooden spoon for this, not an electric mixer.
Nutrition
This Lemon Bundt Cake recipe is bursting with lemon flavor and makes a great breakfast cake! It’s fast and easy, and beautiful too. Top it with a dusting of powdered sugar and fresh cream.
I’ve made this cake several times, my husband and I love it. I like to use orange zest and juice it always comes out nice and moist.
There’s a disconnect between step 4 & 5. Is the heavy whipping cream whipped? When is it added? Is it folded in with the eggs? Please advise.
It reads in step 5: “Gently fold in the flour mixture, while alternating with the heavy whipping cream. I did this in about 3 additions.”
No you don’t whip it, it’s added in step 5. The eggs are mixed in step 4.
I’m sorry to have to write a negative review but this is a horrible recipe and I don’t want anyone to waste their time. It was so bad that I threw it away. It wasn’t even good dipped in coffee. Dry, heavy, and flavorless. The batter didn’t even taste good , which is a bad sign.
Hmmm, I’m sorry you feel this way. Hopefully you were able to measure ingredients correctly.
INSTEAD OF WHIPPING CREAM CAN I JUST ADD MILK
James,
Step 6 has you add the butter.
Step 2 has you melt butter and set aside. When do you add the melted butter to the batter?