This simple lemon drizzle Bundt cake is so light and moist and bursting with lemon flavour. A surprisingly easy yet impressive lemon cake recipe!
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After having a little break recently, I decided to return with one of my all-time favourite cake flavours – lemon! And this isn’t just any lemon cake. This lemon drizzle Bundt cake is light, moist, zingy and sweet, and makes a great showstopper!
Easy Lemon Drizzle Bundt Cake
I only started making Bundt cakes within the last year, having been a bit nervous about trying them! I think it’s because I’ve read about how they can often stick to the pan. However, I’ve now figured out how to prevent sticking and realised they’re really not too different from regular cakes. I think they’re a fantastic way of making a simple cake look more impressive, without actually making much more effort!
What is the difference between a Bundt cake and a regular cake?
It’s all to do with the shape of the pan – a Bundt pan! These deep, ring-shaped pans come in all shapes and sizes, with simple to really detailed patterns, allowing you to make all sorts of beautifully designed cakes.
I opted for this Bundt pan for this recipe!
(If you’re a chocolate fan, you could also try my Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake!)
Lemon Drizzle Bundt Cake Recipe Ingredients
This impressive yet simple lemon Bundt cake recipe is made using basic ingredients. You’ll find the full ingredient amounts in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but in summary, you’ll need:
- Plain flour for the cake’s main structure
- Baking powder to help the cake rise, making it light and fluffy
- Salt to balance the flavours and sweetness
- Butter is beaten with the sugar to help create a lighter cake
- Caster sugar for sweetness
- Light brown sugar for sweetness and a little extra moisture
- Eggs to bind the ingredients
- Lemon zest
- Lemon juice both zest and juice bring lots of zingy lemon flavour!
- Vanilla extract for a little added flavour
- Buttermilk brings wonderful moisture to the cake
- Icing sugar is mixed with a little lemon juice to create the lemon drip icing!
How to make a lemon drizzle bundt cake
I’ve added full instructions with step-by-step photos to the recipe card at the end of this post! Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Preheat your oven to 160°C/140°C fan and grease your Bundt pan with non-stick baking spray or butter
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract and beat until combined
- Next, add half the dry ingredients, mix on low to combine, then repeat with the final half of dry ingredients
- Finally, add the buttermilk and mix on low until just combined
- Pour the cake batter into your prepared Bundt pan and bake for around 45 minutes
- Once baked and still warm from the oven, mix lemon juice with caster sugar and pour over the warm cake after poking several holes with a coctail stick or cake skewer
- Leave to cool in the pan for around 15 minutes, then turn out onto your chosen serving plate or cake stand to finish cooling
- To make the lemon drip icing, simple mix the icing sugar with some lemon juice until it’s the ideal drip consistency, then drizzle onto the cake with a spoon!
Tips for making the best lemon drizzle bundt cake
- To prevent the outside of your cake from browning too much when baking, I discovered a handy trick! Simply wrap the outside of your Bundt pan with a layer of foil before baking. To foil helps to deflect some of the heat away, resulting in a paler golden colour on the outside of the cake! My cake took 45 minutes to bake when wrapped in foil, so if you choose to not use foil your cake might bake through a little quicker. Just keep a closer eye on it after around 35 minutes.
- Be sure to use room temperature ingredients as they combine together more evenly, resulting in a better cake. Cold ingredients can cause your batter to become lumpy so it pays to be prepared by getting all of your cold ingredients out of the frige about half an hour before starting 🙂
- This Bundt cake has a very light texture which I love but it does make it a little difficult to handle once out of the Bundt pan! Therefore I highly recommend turning your finished cake out from your Bundt pan straight onto your chosen serving plate or cake stand. During recipe testing I tried cooling it on a wire rack once out of the pan, but the cake nearly broke in half when trying to move it from the rack to a cake stand!
Lemon Bundt Cake FAQs
How do you grease a Bundt pan to prevent a cake from sticking?
It is so important to grease your Bundt pan well as any dry areas can cause the cake to stick when trying to remove the finished cake. During recipe testing I found that non-stick baking spray helped the cake to release more easily from the pan, though a good layer of butter helps too – just make sure to get it into all the little edges! You can also dust the greased pan with a thin layer of flour to help prevent sticking.
How long should I leave a Bundt cake to cool in the pan before turning it out?
I found that 15 minutes was just right to allow it to cool slightly before turning the cake out. Just remember the tip I mentioned above – turn your cake out straight onto your final serving plate or cake stand, not onto a wire rack. This is because this cake is quite light and delicate, so it might crack or crumble if trying to move it from a wire rack to a serving plate!
What Bundt pan should I use?
The Bundt pan I used is classed as a “12 cup” pan. The cake batter didn’t completely fill the pan though so I believe you could use a smaller pan instead, such as a “10 cup” pan.
WHY DO CAKE INGREDIENTS NEED TO BE AT ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE MIXING?
When mixing cold ingredients with warmer ingredients, it prevents them from combining smoothly and can lead to a lumpy, uneven batter. By using ingredients which are all at a similar temperature, they’ll blend together much more smoothly and this will result in a more even, better quality cake!
Do I need to store a lemon Bundt cake in the fridge?
This cake is fine to store at room temperature; just make sure it’s sealed in an airtight container! Storing it in the fridge might actually dry it out quicker and reduce it’s shelf life so I try to avoid keeping cake in the fridge where possible.
Is a lemon bundt cake suitable for freezing?
Yes! It can be frozen iced or uniced, again so long as it’s stored securely in an airtight container. It should keep well in the freezer for around 4-5 months.
To conclude, this lemon drizzle Bundt cake is:
- surprisingly quick and easy to make with simple ingredients
- so light, fluffy and moist
- full of zingy lemon flavour
- an ideal quick and simple showstopper cake!
If you try this recipe I’d love to see! You can show me by tagging me @bakerjoblog or using #bakerjoblog!
Other lemon recipes to try:
- Lemon Coconut Layer Cake
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Lemon Bars
- The Bake Off Box: Lemony Lemon Slices
- Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake
- No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake
- Lemon Coconut Muffins
- Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake with Meringue Kisses
Lemon Drizzle Bundt Cake
Equipment
- 10-12 cup Bundt pan
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- Medium mixing bowl
- Large mixing bowl
- Small bowl x 2
- Non-stick baking pan spray (optional)
- Foil (optional)
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Cocktail stick or cake skewer
Ingredients
Lemon Bundt Cake
- 280 g plain flour
- 2 +1/2 tsp baking powder level
- 1/2 tsp salt level
- 200 g unsalted butter room temperature/softened
- 200 g caster sugar
- 80 g light brown sugar
- 4 medium eggs room temperature
- Zest of 2 medium/large lemons
- 45 ml lemon juice around 1 medium lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100 ml buttermilk room temperature
Lemon Drizzle Syrup
- Juice of 1/2 medium/large lemon
- 40 g caster sugar
Lemon Drip Icing
- Juice of 1/2 medium/large lemon
- 170 g icing sugar sifted to remove lumps
- 2-3 tbsp water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan.
- Generously grease your Bundt pan with non-stick baking pan spray or butter, being sure to go into all the edges of your pan. This step is very important to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan once baked!You can also then coat the pan in a thin, even layer of flour, though I just used non-stick baking pan spray.I wrapped the outside of my Bundt pan in a layer of foil as I found that this helps prevent over-browning/burning, resulting in a paler golden cake!
- Add the plain flour, baking powder and salt to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- Using an electric stand mixer or hand mixer with a large mixing bowl and beater/paddle attachments, beat the butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar on medium speed for 2 whole minutes until lighter in colour and fluffy.
- Next, add the eggs one by one, beating on medium speed for around 20 seconds after each addition to combine.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract and beat on medium speed for around 20 seconds until just combined.
- Add half the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined, then repeat with the final half of dry ingredients.
- Finally, add the buttermilk and beat on low speed until just combined.
- Pour the cake batter into your prepared Bundt pan. The mixture will be quite thick so you will need to level the mixture with a spatula.
- Bake on the lower/middle shelf of your preheated oven for around 40-45 minutes. You will know it's baked through when a cocktail stick or cake skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. (If you choose not to wrap the outside of your pan with foil the cake may bake a little quicker, so start checking on it from around 35 minutes).
Lemon Drizzle Syrup
- In a small bowl, mix together the lemon juice and caster sugar with a spoon until combined.
- Once baked, place the Bundt pan onto a wire cooling rack and poke several holes into the cake using a cocktail stick or cake skewer.
- Pour the lemon drizzle syrup over the top of the cake. You can use a pastry brush to spread it more evenly across the cake.
- Leave the cake to cool for 15 minutes on the wire rack, then carefully turn it out onto your chosen serving plate or cake stand and leave to cool completely.
Lemon Drip Icing
- In a small bowl mix the lemon juice, sifted icing sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of water (add a tablespoon at a time) until smooth and the right consistency to drip slowly down the sides of the cake.
- Carefully spoon the icing onto the top of the cake, allowing it to run down the sides. Leave the icing to set.
- Best stored in an airtight container at room temperature and eaten within 4-5 days.
