Meyer Lemon Cake (Lemon Bundt Cake with Glaze or Icing)
Meyer lemon cake is a crowd-pleaser. From young to old, everyone loves the sweet and tart flavor and moist crumb, and you’ll love how easy it is to make. Use the glaze and icing, or keep it naked; it’s delicious either way!
This Meyer lemon cake recipe is simply another in a collection of lemon cake recipes on this site.
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It was a lemon cake recipe in my school book. from when I was 7 years old, that got me hooked on baking (and later, cooking).
This is my handwritten copy of the recipe. Note the one hour baking time reduced to 15 minutes, haha!
On a side note, I recently discovered that a famous celebrity chef (Curtis Stone) who I have met and really admire, has an eerily similar handwritten recipe on his site. 🫣 The strangest part is that it’s for an ORANGE CAKE and it’s on a similar sheet of paper with the same handwriting! We both underlined our title and have a line across the paper! What are the chances?
This photo of Curtis and me was taken at a James Beard event which I attended with Cynthia from What a Girl Eats. Cynthia joked, when we were being given our table number, that we needed to be seated at Chef Stone’s table. What a delightful (but shocking) discovery when we realized that we actually were seated at the same table with him! Not only did we meet him and taste his delicious appetizers before the event, but we chatted, and had a few more photos taken with him after dinner. 😎
The first lemon cake recipe that I shared on Christina’s Cucina was my copycat Better Than Starbuck’s Iced Lemon Loaf (and I still stand by this claim). If you’re a lemon lover, I can’t NOT share this easy lemon posset dessert with you from my pal, Cynthia at What a Girl Eats!
I’ve expanded my repertoire, and share lots of different recipes now, but you simply might not know it when you see how many lemon cake recipes I have.
I then posted a similar lemon pound cake that was gluten free which a friend had made. I just couldn’t believe a gluten free cake could taste so good, so I had to share the recipe.
Years later, my mother discovered an amazing whole orange cake recipe, which was super popular, and we tried it with lemons as well. The whole lemon cake was utter perfection as well!
I then published a gluten free whole lemon cake recipe, which was met with rave reviews, just like the original. So today’s bundt cake recipe is made with a whole Meyer lemon, or possibly one and a half, depending on how large/heavy your lemons are.
If you cannot use homegrown Meyer lemons, you may want to add a drop or two of lemon oil to boost the lemon flavor, but it’s not critical. Even store-bought Meyers are usually very good, but do use organic since you’re ingesting all of the rind.
This glazed version is perfect with some freshly whipped cream and macerated strawberries on top!
You will have to make a decision on one of three ways to serve this cake: plain, glazed or iced. To be honest, you can’t go wrong with any of these choices! As you can see on the glazed cake above, I added three lemon slice to the glaze as it simmered and then put them on top, just for a bit of pizzaz!
The cake’s moist texture, and delightful crumb comes from using the entire lemon, and is the reason for its popularity. You can actually see how gorgeous it is! Just don’t expect a super light sponge cake as this is a bit more dense, but totally wonderful! Try the apricot cake version, too!
NOTE: in these photos, the measurements given will result in a bundt cake that is represented by the glazed cake photos. The iced cake is made using a smaller amount of batter such as in this lemon cake recipe and will result in a shorter bundt cake like this one below.
FOR BEST RESULTS, PLEASE USE A KITCHEN SCALE. There is no way to know how much a lemon weighs to use the right amount without using a scale. Cups are simply inaccurate.
Meyer Lemon Cake Recipe
slightly adapted from my Sicilian whole lemon cake recipe serves 12
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Ingredients
- eggs
- sugar
- flour
- baking powder or Pane Degli Angeli vanilla baking powder
- butter
- plain Greek yogurt
- Meyer lemons
- vanilla extract, if using plain baking powder
- optional (lemon oil)
Glaze
- Meyer lemon juice
- sugar
OR ~
Icing
- powdered/confectioner’s sugar
- Meyer lemon juice
- optional (Meyer lemon rind)
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
Butter and flour a 12 cup bundt pan (don’t miss any spots and be generous so that the cake releases easily). This bundt pan is made in USA. 🇺🇸
Directions
Wash and weigh the correct amount of lemons, then cut them into chunks and remove the seeds. DO NOT REMOVE THE RIND.
Beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl in a mixer until light and creamy.
Sift the flour with the baking powder or Paneangeli, then add to the mixture in the bowl a little at a time along with the softened butter.
Continue to mix until completely blended, then stir in the yogurt.
Blend the lemon chunks in a food processor until finely chopped. It will still have small pieces of rind, and that’s fine. If using the lemon oil, add it to the processed lemon. Now, stir this into the batter until evenly mixed.
Finally, add the batter to the prepared bundt pan and bake for about one hour. Test with a cake tester or skewer; it should come out dry (no batter). Allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes, before gently shaking to loosen the cake from the pan. If it feels like it’s stuck, let it cool a little bit longer before trying again. Then place a cooling rack (upside down) on top of the pan and quickly invert the cake onto the rack and remove the bundt pan. It should look like this.
If glazing, do so while the cake is still warm.
Add glazed lemon slices if desired.
Here’s a close up of the inside crumb.
If icing, allow the cake to cool completely before icing.
Allow the icing to set before cutting.
And you can always serve it with a glass of limoncello!
Please use the comment section for any questions, but please read my post (not just the recipe card) before sending a question which is already answered above, thank you!
Enjoy this delightful cake and let me know in the reviews if you made it!
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Meyer Lemon Cake
Special Equipment
- 1 12 cup bundt pan
- 1 cake tester optional
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 2 ¼ cups sugar
- 2 ⅔ cups all purpose flour
- 3 ½ tsp baking powder or 1 ½ packets Italian Pane Degli Angeli vanilla baking powder
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 ½ large Meyer lemons organic
- ¾ tsp vanilla extract if you are using baking powder instead of Pane Degli Angeli
Glaze (choose this glaze OR the icing below)
- 1 ½ oz lemon juice
- 1 ½ oz water
- 4 ½ Tbsp sugar
Icing
- 1 ½ cup confectioner's sugar
- lemon juice as needed
- ⅛ tsp lemon rind grated, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
- Butter and flour a 12 cup bundt pan (don't miss any spots and be generous so that the cake releases easily). This bundt pan is made in USA.
Meyer Lemon Cake:
- Wash and weigh the correct amount of lemons, then cut them into chunks and remove the seeds. DO NOT REMOVE THE RIND.
- Beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl in a mixer until light and creamy.
- Sift the flour with the baking powder or Paneangeli, then add to the mixture in the bowl a little at a time along with the softened butter.
- Continue to mix until completely blended, then stir in the yogurt.
- Blend the lemon chunks in a food processor until finely chopped. It will still have small pieces of rind, and that's fine.
- Add the processed lemon to the batter and mix well.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for about one hour. Test with a cake tester or skewer; it should come out dry (no batter).
- Allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes, before gently shaking to loosen the cake from the pan. If it feels like it's stuck, let it cool a little bit longer before trying again. Then place a cooling rack (upside down) on top of the pan and quickly invert the cake onto the rack and remove the bundt pan. It should look like this.
- If glazing, do so while the cake is still warm. Add glazed lemon slices if desired.
Glaze:
- Put the glaze ingredients in a small pot and bring to a simmer. (Add a few lemon slices if desired, to decorate the top of the cake).
- Let simmer for about 3 minutes, then brush onto cake.
OR Icing:
- Stir the lemon juice into the sugar until smooth consistency is reached, it should slowly pour off a spoon. Add more or less juice to achieve this consistency.
- Pour or spoon icing on the cake and allow to set before serving.
- Optional: sprinkle some lemon rind on top of the icing after it's dripped down the cake, but before it has set.
- Allow the icing to dry completely before cutting (for best results).
Notes
- If glazing, do so while the cake is still warm.
- If icing, allow the cake to cool completely before icing.
- PLEASE DO NOT USE THE GLAZE AND THE ICING
Nutrition
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Hi, I’m thinking of making this recipe but want to confirm that the ingredients list asks for 1 1/2 lbs of Meyer lemons? It doesn’t specify so I’m assuming. Thank you in advance.
Hi Sylvia, this is why I always encourage using a kitchen scale. You’ll note there is a metric button below the ingredients and it says 450 g of Meyer lemons which is roughly a pound. The American standard recipe calls for 1 ½ lemons. Please try using a scale as you’ll never look back.
Lime cake?
Hi Christina,
Love your cake recipies!
I have made your lemon, orange and apricot cakes several times with great success, and now I’m trying to adapt it to lime. The flavour is great, but the bits of rind remain hard even when I put the fruti in a grinder rather than the food processor. This latest time I took a peeler to the zest, but it didn’t make much difference. Now thinking I should remove the white part of the peel too. It just seems to be too hard. Haven’t had this problem with other citrus fruit.
Hasve you made these cakes or variations of them with limes, or are these wee green fruits too problematic? I’d ve intrerested to ffind out.
Ah, yes the dreaded lime bits! I did try it once and it was awful. Like you said, too bitter and the rind too hard, so I was going to try again by adding the grated rind (using a microplane) and removing all the rind and pith and only using the flesh. I think that would work, but also have to see if there’s enough sugar when doing it again. So I still have to recipe test to be able to tell you, but I do understand what happened with yours as I had the same problem.
Can’t wait to try this recipe.. looking forward to having a slice with coffee from the Bialetti Mocha Pot.
Yes!
“Add lemons to the batter” should be step 6, right?
Good eye, Monique! Yes, thank you, I will edit it now! Sorry about that!
your dry measure vs weights are so far off on this lemon cake recipe it scared me to use it – I rely on weight for most of my baking especially sourdough bread and was a bit disturbed by this discrepancy. However I did cook it and it turned out fine with adjustments.
Incorrect, they are not “off” at all, I added them as I wanted them. No adjustments needed whatsoever whether you use a scale or cups, Brian. The recipe is from an Italian website using grams, and I ALWAYS encourage weighing ingredients, however, with this cake, it is so forgiving that I changed the cups to make it easier for those using them (instead of 1 cup plus 1 ½ Tbsp flour, etc) which is the reason for what you see as a discrepancy. If you know me, you’d know I wouldn’t be sharing a recipe that doesn’t work. Hope you liked it.
I’ve always thought lemon and coffee together are the bees knees, looking forwars to enjoying this paired with a Bialetti Mocha Pot espresso! Manga!