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This Lemon Pound Cake with Fresh Strawberry Icing is moist, dense and packed with fresh lemon flavor. The strawberry glaze uses fresh strawberries for the taste of Summer!
Happy 4th of July!!! Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. I can’t help but reflect on the courage, vision and fortitude it took to make this Country the paragon of freedom and democracy that it is today. On July 4th I chiefly feel overcome with this sense of pride, which is precisely how you’ll feel after making and serving this Lemon Pound Cake with Fresh Strawberry Icing.
Proud that there isn’t a crumb left over and all your guests are raving about how moist and flavorful it was. The lemon is subtle and the strawberry icing just takes the cake to that next flavor level. It’s therefore a celebration in and of itself. We The People demand more of this cake!
Lemon Pound Cake with Strawberry Icing – All Natural, All the Time
Another thing I love about this Lemon Pound Cake is that there isn’t a drop of unnatural flavoring or coloring. Much like my Classic Strawberry Shortcake, the strawberries and lemons are a perfect all-natural combination of flavors. The pale yellow of this pound cake is tinted by lemon, and the sweet, strawberry icing is flavored and colored by fresh strawberries. Warning: You are going to want to eat this icing on EVERYTHING. Cakes, tarts, cupcakes…literally everything. It’s really lovely to have such a natural and overall spectacular icing. Try it out with my chocolate pound cake recipe next!
Speaking of having more of this lemon pound cake – I couldn’t get this cake out of the house fast enough! It was so good that I knew if it stuck around I would eat it all (and, rest assured, I’ve already eaten enough!) They don’t call it Pound Cake because it’s fat free. And we all know what the Wedding Fairy would have to say about that [Hint: it would be snarky].
Lemon Pound Cake with Fresh Strawberry Icing
Ingredients
For the Lemon Pound Cake:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup shortening room temperature
- 5 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice fresh squeezed, please!
- 1 extra large lemon zested (3/4 teaspoon)
For the Strawberry Icing:
- 1 cup strawberries at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
- 4 cups powdered sugar divided
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter very soft but not melted
- 1 ½ tablespoons light corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the Lemon Pound Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour your pans. This recipe makes either one large Bundt pan or two large loaf pans.
- Sift Flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter, shortening and sugar until the mixture comes together and it is not longer lumpy or clumpy. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until incorporated.
- Add flour mixture in three additions alternating with milk, starting and ending with flour (yes, this is important). Don’t worry if your batter appears curdled after adding the milk. It’s all good. Mix after each addition only until just blended.
- Add the lemon juice and zest. Mix well. It might look curdled. Don’t worry here either.
- Working quickly, pour batter into prepared pans until they are a little more than ¾ full. If you dilly-dally (like I did with my mini loaves) they will fall, and then they will look sad, and we don’t tolerate sad here at CLF.
- Bake cakes until tester comes out with only a few crumbs attached. Approximately 55 minutes for a large Bundt pan and 35 minutes for small pans. I personally would start testing my large Bundt cake after 35 minutes because I abhor dry cakes. Seriously, who wants that?
Make the Fresh Strawberry Icing:
- Sift your powdered sugar after measuring and set it aside. Coarsely chop the hulled strawberries.
- Add strawberries, ¼ cup powdered sugar, and lemon zest to a food processor. Process until the strawberries are completely pureed. Using a wooden spoon, press as much of the strawberry mixture through a fine sieve as possible. Discard seeds.
- Stir the butter, corn syrup and vanilla extract into the strawberry juice. If you can’t quite figure out how to incorporate softened butter into the juice, don’t fret. I stuck mine in the microwave on level 2 and nuked it in 10 second increments until I could stir it all together and I didn’t see any butter pieces. No one wants those.
- Stir the remaining powdered sugar into the strawberry mixture. If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add a tablespoon of water.
This is my go to pound cake recipe. It’s perfect every time! I usually have about a cup or so of batter left over after filling my bundt pan 2/3 full so I make 2-3 muffins with it (too good to waste). I also follow your glaze recipe and the only exception I make is to use raspberries instead of strawberries (our preference). I’ve made this recipe at least 10 times and it is always a crowd pleaser. Thanks so much for this wonderful recipe!
Thank you so much for commenting! I’m glad you enjoy, and it’s beautiful you share it with others! ????
Just made in two loaf pans. Amazing! Lemony. Sweet. Yummy. I did have to adjust bake time. Mine were still runny at the time mark. They did pop out of the pan after cooling yet still warm — enough to handle bare hands. Icing I modified. Used honey instead of karo. It felt too artificial after using the lemons, strawberries, and blueberries. I cut the powdered sugar back by one cup — 4 just seemed like a lot. Great recipe. Thanks for posting.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Susan! Thank you!