Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

236 Ratings
  • 5 58
  • 4 79
  • 3 63
  • 2 23
  • 1 13

A crack or crevice along the top of a pound cake is a good thing—especially when it's filled with a sweet Meyer lemon glaze.

Martha Bakes, February 2011, Martha Bakes, Episode 1002

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Read the full recipe after the video.

Recipe Summary

Yield:
Makes 2 loaves
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Ingredients

For the Glaze
For the Cake

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-by-5-by-3-inch (or larger) loaf pans and set aside.

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  • Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder two times and set aside.

  • With an electric mixer, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy.

  • Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Stir only until thoroughly blended. Gently fold in the zest.

  • Pour batter into the prepared pans, making sure to divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Level tops with an offset spatula. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan about 10 minutes; then remove to a wire rack to cool thoroughly.

  • Make the glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk all glaze ingredients to combine. If necessary, add additional confectioners' sugar to desired consistency.

  • Pour glaze on top of cakes and serve.

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Reviews (23)

236 Ratings
  • 5 58
  • 4 79
  • 3 63
  • 2 23
  • 1 13
Martha Stewart Member
07/22/2020
Hello, I have recently started baking cakes (Pound cakes that is),since my eldest sister passed in March 2020. She baked awesome pound cakes. I want to carry on her legacy and I started baking my first pound cake for our 47th wedding anniversary and my 75th birthday virtual celebration. Never too late! I am afraid to tackle this one right now due to the # of flopps . I love my Sour Cream pound Cake recipe. I copied it from The Food Network. It is called the Worlds' Best Pound. I went for it and it did not fail me. It was all that I wanted and more. I did not use the topping due to my sugar restriction. I even added I/8th cup of heavy cream, OMG it was fantastic. It got 5* + from me. I've started to collect pound cake recipes. The best ones I pass on to our Church ladies.
Martha Stewart Member
07/22/2020
Hello, I have recently started baking cakes (Pound cakes that is),since my eldest sister passed in March 2020. She baked awesome pound cakes. I want to carry on her legacy and I started baking my first pound cake for our 47th wedding anniversary and my 75th birthday virtual celebration. Never too late! I am afraid to tackle this one right now due to the # of flopps . I love my Sour Cream pound Cake recipe. I copied it from The Food Network. It is called the Worlds' Best Pound. I went for it and it did not fail me. It was all that I wanted and more. I did not use the topping due to my sugar restriction. I even added I/8th cup of heavy cream, OMG it was fantastic. It got 5* + from me. I've started to collect pound cake recipes. The best ones I pass on to our Church ladies.
Martha Stewart Member
06/24/2020
This is probably the worst recipe I have ever made. I think there must be something wrong with the recipe as I followed exactly. @Martha please check this and update it, and or remove it from the website! It did over flow as other comments mentioned and it sunk in the middle like Crazy! First time to see this.
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Martha Stewart Member
04/30/2020
Found there was not enough flavour in the batter so I added half a cup of Mayor lemon juice and zest from three lemons instead. Added another 8th cup of flour to compensate for the extra liquid. Cooked in a bundt pan and made 8 cupcakes out of the remaining batter. Came out delicious!
Martha Stewart Member
07/31/2019
So many negative reviews it discouraged me from baking it. The reviews are from 2013 and one from a year ago. Anyone has recently baked it? I’m curious.
Martha Stewart Member
06/25/2018
I always used Ina Garten's recipe, but I love Martha, so gave it a try. Sorry, Martha, Ina has you beat on his one!
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Martha Stewart Member
04/25/2015
I have made this cake a couple of times, it has come out great every time. The only thing that I did a bit different is that I added a bit more zest to the batter and icing. I love Meyer Lemon as it is not too sour. My family love it although they are not a fan of citrus.
Martha Stewart Member
05/10/2014
Help, I made this once and it was perfect and delicious. I tried to make it again at Christmas time and it sunk in the middle. I thought it was a fluke, so tried making it again today following the recipe to a "T" and it's sinking again!! Anyone, have any ideas? I used new baking soda and cake flour.
Martha Stewart Member
04/04/2014
I'm not even a great baker, but watched the show on APT. My cakes turned out great. I went exactly by the recipe and any tips she said about the sifting, etc., and was greatly surprised with the outcome. Since then, I've used some of her bread recipes with success. With the videos, Ive' become a beet baker.
Martha Stewart Member
02/05/2014
Wow, I followed the recipe to a tee and it was a disaster! After placing batter in two loaf pans, after 10 minutes in the oven, the batter began overflowing. This continued for the first hour. Please review the recipe and let me know where I went wrong!
Martha Stewart Member
10/20/2013
I baked this as a gift for a friend for her birthday. Instead of two loaf pans, I used a standard bundt pan and a 12 muffin pan. The bundt baked up really well, as did the muffins. The texture of the cake was a bit lighter than pound cake, but still really flavorful and moist - not overpoweringly lemony either. The glaze was pleasantly tart, and I topped it with Biscoff crumbs. Great recipe!
Martha Stewart Member
02/28/2013
Ok, I watched the video after I posted my last comment, Martha's pound cake was crusty on top, too! I'm still going to try again with whole milk.
Martha Stewart Member
02/28/2013
I had no problem with the cake overflowing. My first try I halved the recipe & ended up with a crusty top & no crack. Made it again as is & both cakes once again had crusty tops & no crust. I decided it was because I used skim milk. I had no problem with the coconut buttermilk pound cake recipe & so will try again with whole milk. All in all, the cakes I did bake tasted delicious.
Martha Stewart Member
02/20/2013
perfect recipe! a bit sour glaze but i loved it!
Martha Stewart Member
06/27/2012
I read some of the reviews for this recipe and was surprised others had so many problems with the recipe. I made it as per instructed and my loaves came out absolutely perfect. I got rave reviews from my co-workers. A few things that may be helpful if your cakes are falling is that it does call for cake flour so that is a must and make sure that you use the correct amount of baking powder. Also, baking powder does expire so make sure it is relatively new otherwise it will not work properly.
Martha Stewart Member
03/18/2011
Please note adjustments to Steps 1 and 5 in this recipe: The directions call for two 9-by-5-by-3 (or larger) loaf pans. And the batter must be divided evenly between the two pans to avoid overflow -- we suggest using a digital scale (if you have one) to measure out the batter evenly, or you could use a larger loaf pan.
Martha Stewart Member
03/16/2011
omg Martha, I watched you two nights ago making this recipe and just had to make it. I baked it, followed the recipe to the t and both of my loaves came out perfect!!! I don't understand why everyone else's didn't. I'm not a professional, I just picked up the love for cooking/baking within the past decade so I have experience in the kitchen but far from being an expertise. I love what I do, followed each step and had no problems....and those Meyer lemons are simply magnificent!!! Thank you
Martha Stewart Member
03/16/2011
Sorry, I said I used 3 tsps "baking soda" in the message below. Typo. I did use "baking powder".
Martha Stewart Member
03/16/2011
This recipe is NOT a "Good Thing"!
Martha Stewart Member
03/16/2011
I wanted to make this cake. It sounded so good but with the comments on here about over flowing and falling, I'm not sure I want to chance wasting all those eggs and butter. Why do they put recipes like this on here if they don't work? It does sound like an excessive amount of baking powder and I was really worried about that. Isn't that what causes it to overflow? I decided to try it anyway and only used 3 tsps baking soda. It's about 2/3 done and the center has sunk.
Martha Stewart Member
03/14/2011
Results were very disappointing. Cake overflowed, even with suggested size pan. Entire center of both cakes fell approx 2/3 through the baking process. Only the ends were usable, tasted good, but too much time and expense to end up in the trash. I am an experienced baker and have never had such results before.
Martha Stewart Member
03/01/2011
Actually, had nothing to do with the size of the pan. Mine overflowed as well. The recipe calls for too much baking powder.
Martha Stewart Member
02/21/2011
I hate it when a recipe doesn't clarify the size of the pan. Use 2 9x5 loaf pans. I just baked mine in 2 8x3 and it was way to much batter and it over flowed during baking.
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