This lemon pound cake is soft, moist and full of lemon flavor. It is easy to make and needs just four ingredients. Unlike most pound cakes, you don’t need any butter or oil. The cake is drizzled with a sweet and tart lemon glaze. It is great for brunch or dessert.
I’ve been in the mood for lemon desserts recently, especially with summer just around the corner. This lemon pound cake is so easy to make and topped with a delicious and easy lemon glaze that is just the right amount of sweet and tart.
Ingredients
- Self-Rising Flour
- Eggs
- Lemons
- Condensed Milk
Self-Rising Flour: Self-rising flour is all purpose flour already pre-mixed with baking powder and salt. I like using self-rising flour because it saves me a few extra steps in preparing the recipe. If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make your own by mixing together all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
Eggs: The eggs provide structure for this cake.
Lemons: This cake uses both lemon juice and lemon zest to give the cake lemon flavor and fragrance. Make sure to use both the juice and zest. You will need 1 to 2 lemons for this cake.
Condensed milk: This cake is made with sweetened full fat condensed milk. Condensed milk adds sweetness to the cake and also gives the cake a tighter crumb.
How to Make Lemon Pound Cake
The eggs and condensed milk are first mixed together. The flour is then mixed in. Finally, the lemon juice and zest are stirred in until just combined. It’s important to add the zest at the end, otherwise you won’t be able to see if there are any unmixed flour lumps in the batter.
The batter is then ready to be poured into a loaf pan and baked.
More Lemon Recipes
4 Ingredient Lemon Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup (303 g) full fat sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup (128 g) self-rising flour
- 2 tbsp (1 oz/30ml) lemon juice + 2 tsp lemon zest
Instructions
- Add eggs and condensed milk to a large mixing bowl. Make sure to scrape the sides of the measuring cup with a spatula to get all the condensed milk into the bowl. Whisk until eggs are fully incorporated and batter is uniform. Add in flour. Whisk until flour is fully incorporated and no lumps of flour remain. You can also mix the batter with a mixer but if you do, make sure to mix flour in on low speed until just mixed so that you don't overmix the batter.
- Add in lemon juice and zest. Gently stir until they are evenly mixed in.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 45 minutes or until cake is done. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick and it should come out mostly clean. When you press against the surface of the cake, it should also bounce back. Let the cake cool fully in the pan before removing. If adding glaze, wait until the cake is fully cooled before drizzling it on top.
Notes
- This cake is soft and moist with a tight crumb. It's a little hard to see in the photos but the bottom of the cake is more dense because of the high amount of liquid in this batter. I did make versions of this cake to fix the appearance but they didn't taste as good as this version.
- To make your own self-rising flour, mix together 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp salt.
- Don't leave out the lemon zest. The cake only has a little lemon juice added to the batter because too much will change the cake texture, so a lot of the lemon flavor comes from the zest.
- Optional Lemon Glaze: Add 1 cup of powdered sugar to a medium bowl. Add 1-2 tbsp of lemon juice until the glaze reaches desired consistency. I recommend starting with 1 tbsp and then gradually adding in the second as needed because it only takes a little liquid for the glaze to become very thin. If you prefer a less tart glaze you can also just add 1 tbsp of lemon juice and then thin out the glaze with water or milk.
- The cake is sweet, but not super sweet on its own. If you prefer sweeter desserts, I definitely recommend you add the lemon glaze. The lemon glaze also adds more lemon flavor as well
- You will need one to two lemons to produce 2 tbsp of lemon juice and 2 tsp of lemon zest.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
