Brighten your day with this rich and moist Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake. It feels like springtime and tastes amazing under a layer of lemon glaze.
This is Susan’s favorite lemon pound cake and one that I’ve been making for years. I’ve never been disappointed by it. Neither will you!
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Ingredients: Here’s What You’ll Need For This Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
This awesome bundt cake uses simple ingredients: Unsalted butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, salt, eggs, and cake flour. Both meyer lemons and regular lemons work well in this recipe.
Here’s How I Made the Batter
- First, I creamed the room temperature butter in a large bowl with my electric mixer until it was light and fluffy. This took about 5 minutes. Then, I added the cream cheese and continued beating the mixture for another 2 minutes or so.
- Next, I added the sugar and continued beating the mixture until it was light and fluffy. This took another 3 minutes.
- I added the lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and salt and beat the mixture until everything was well incorporated.
- After that, I added the eggs, two at a time, and continued beating the mixture.
- Finally, I added the flour and beat the mixture on low speed just until the flour started to be incorporated. At that point, I switched to a rubber spatula and carefully continued folding the flour into the batter. As a final step, I scraped the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything was well incorporated.
Finishing the Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
I sprayed the bundt cake pan well with non-stick baking spray to ensure that it didn’t stick when the lemony cake was done.
Then, I transferred the batter to the prepared pan.
I leveled out the cake batter in the pan and gave the pan a couple of taps on the countertop to release any air bubbles. Then, I popped it into a preheated 350°F oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
After 1 hour and 20 minutes, the top of the cake was golden brown. Also, the cake had started to pull away from the sides of the pan, indicating that it was done.
After I took the cake out of the oven, I inverted it onto a cooling rack that I had set over a rimmed baking sheet. It came right out of the pan.
While the cake was still hot, I brushed it all over with a simple lemon syrup that I made by heating together lemon juice and sugar. The lemon syrup helps to produce a super moist cake.
Once the cake had cooled completely, I drizzled on a lemon glaze made with confectioners’ sugar and fresh lemon juice.
The Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake was delicious. It was rich, moist, and had the perfect combination of sweet and tart. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
Cake flour is made from softer wheat that is ground extra fine compared to all-purpose flour, which tends to have a denser and tougher texture. In addition, the protein content of cake flour is lower than that of all-purpose flour. Therefore, cakes made with cake flour will have a more tender texture.
Even though the two types of flour are different, you can substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour. When substituting a cup of all-purpose flour for a cup of cake flour, remove two tablespoons of the all-purpose flour and replace it with two tablespoons of cornstarch.
Brushing the cake with simple lemon syrup allows the liquid to soak into the cake. This adds extra moisture to the cake and provides an added lemony sweetness.
Other Bundt Cakes That You’ll Love
If you’re a fan of Bundt cakes, you should check out these amazing Bundt cake recipes.
I first posted this amazing recipe on December 11, 2017. Since then, I’ve made this cake a number of times. This update contains improved text and photographs but the same great recipe.
I hope you liked this recipe for Lemon Cheese Bundt Cake as much as I do. If so, please consider rating it and leaving a comment. Also, if you’d like to receive notifications of new posts by email, enter your email address in the Subscribe box.
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Recipe
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Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Bundt cake pan
Ingredients
Bundt Cake
- 1-½ cups (12 ounces, 340 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 cups (21 ounces, 595 grams) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (2 ounces, 57 ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 1-½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 cups (15 ounces, 425 grams) cake flour
Simple Lemon Syrup
- ¼ cup (2 ounces, 57 ml) fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup (3.5 ounces, 99 grams) granulated sugar
Lemon Glaze
- 2 cups (8 ounces, 227 grams) confectioners' sugar
- 3 to 4 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Bundt Cake
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray 10-inch Bundt pan with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, cream butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and salt; beat until well combined. Add eggs, two at a time; beat until combined. Add flour; beat on low just until flour starts to be incorporated. Continue folding in flour with a rubber spatula just until all flour is incorporated.
- Spoon batter into prepared pan; smooth top and tap on the counter several times.
- Bake until a tester inserted near the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and invert onto a cooling rack set in a foil-lined baking sheet.
Simple Lemon Syrup
- Combine sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds to a minute until sugar has dissolved. Brush syrup over the hot cake. Allow to cool completely.
Lemon Glaze
- Mix confectioners' sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Drizzle over the cake, allowing the glaze to drip down the sides. Let stand until glaze sets, about 30 minutes.
- Yield: 8 to 10 servings.
RITA says
I have Meyer lemons from a friend’s tree. These are very juicy, but they are not as tart as other lemons, like the ones in the grocery. I would like to use the Meyer lemon juice in your recipe. Have you had any experience using juice from Meyer lemons with this recipe?
Chula King says
Rita,
I think that the Meyer lemons would work well in this recipe!
Chula
Marcy Caritj says
I recently made this cake and poured it into a 12 cup bundt pan. While cooking it flowed over the top of the pan and there was smoke everywhere. It tasted wonderful, even though it came out in pieces. Wonder what could have caused the overflow.
Chula King says
Oh my gosh, Marcy – I’m so sorry.
The only thing that I can think of that might cause the batter to overflow is beating the eggs too much. I’ve made this cake a number of times and never had a problem with the batter overflowing.
Chula
Jackie Rozier says
Just baked your cake from recipe in local newspaper. Used 2 cups sugar. The cake got really brown on sides and pulled away from pan; however, top was only lightly brown and when tested, my toothpick came out clean! I removed it from oven, afraid the sides would burn. When I removed from pan, it looked great when I sliced it. There is a small area around the bottom of the cake (bottom of pan) that looked as though not cooked well. Thoughts? In any event the cake is delish!! I plan to make it again next weekend!
Chula King says
Jackie,
I’m so glad that the cake turned out for you. Actually, the recipe in the paper had a misprint. It should have indicated 3 cups of sugar, not 2 cups of sugar. My guess is that with 2 cups of sugar, the lemon taste is more pronounced. Even with 2 cups of sugar, I don’t know why there would be an area around the bottom of the pan that didn’t look as though it was cooked well, especially if the rest of the cake was well cooked.
At any rate, I’m glad that the recipe worked with 2 cups of sugar!
Chula
Carol Fordon says
Your recipe was in our local paper and I just put it in the oven. However my paper’s recipe called for 1cup less of sugar than your recipe on the website calls for. Which is it?
Chula King says
Carol,
The correct amount of sugar is three cups.
Chula
Carol Fordon says
Your recipe was in our local paper and I just put it in the oven. However my paper’s recipe called for 2 cups of sugar and your website had 3 cups of sugar.
Which is it? I hope the 2 cups are enough as I would hate to waste all those ingredients.
Mark Leveene says
Great cake. Everyone loved it. Just one comment regarding the weight of the sugar in the cake recipe. 3 cups of sugar is indeed 21 oz but the metric weight, 879 grams, is incorrect. 879 grams is 31 oz, not 21.
Chula King says
Thanks so much for letting me know Mark. I’ve made the correction!
Chula
Kate says
Could I freeze 1/2 of this for a few days after baking (& applying the simple syrup)?
Chula King says
Kate,
Freezing half of the cake shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Chula
Sally says
Can’t wait to try it
Chris says
No baking soda or powder??? Afraid to make it.
Chula King says
Believe it or not – there is neither baking soda nor baking powder!
Chula
Natalie says
This cake looks so good! I love combining cream cheese and citrus – it looks ans sounds delicious ♥
c2king says
Thanks! It tastes incredible.