Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze

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Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze — An easy buttermilk cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!

Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze - An easy little cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!

Easiest From-Scratch Lemon Buttermilk Cake

My daughter loves lemon desserts and I had a ton of lemons and some buttermilk to use. Lucky for her, I made a buttermilk lemon sour cream cake. And lucky for me too because in the past couple years, lemon desserts have really been growing on me.

If you’re a lemon lover, you’ll love the perfectly tart yet just sweet enough big pop of lemon flavor this soft and fluffy buttermilk cake has. 

I used my favorite, foolproof, no mixer, buttermilk cake recipe and worked in lemon three ways: lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon extract.

If I’m eating a lemon dessert, I want to know it’s there. Hint-of-lemon isn’t really my style. Go big or go home.

I love this cake base because it’s fast and easy to make, and the cake always turn out supremely moist, springy, and fluffy thanks to buttermilk, sour cream, and oil. That trifecta of moisturizing and tenderizing ingredients makes it impossible to have a dry cake.

The lemon glaze really helps boost the overall lemon profile of the cake. It’s zingy, tangy-yet-sweet, and after pouring the glaze over the warm cake, it seeps into the cake, and makes it even moister, softer, and more lemony.

Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze - An easy little cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!

What’s in Lemon Buttermilk Cake? 

To make the lemon buttermilk cake itself, you’ll need:

  • All-purpose flour
  • Granulated sugar
  • Baking powder
  • Salt
  • Lemon zest
  • Egg
  • Buttermilk
  • Sour cream
  • Lemon juice
  • Canola oil
  • Lemon extract

And to make the lemon glaze for the cake, you’ll need:

  • Confectioners’ sugar
  • Lemon juice and zest
Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze - An easy little cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!

How to Make Lemon Buttermilk Cake

This truly is such a simple lemon buttermilk cake recipe! Here’s how you’ll make the scratch lemon cake and the lemon cake glaze: 

  1. Stir together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another.
  2. Then, combine the two and turn the batter into a greased 8×8-inch baking pan. 
  3. The lemon buttermilk cake needs to bake until the center is set and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  4. Once the homemade lemon cake comes out of the oven, set it aside to cool while you make the lemon glaze. 
  5. The lemon glaze for the cake is whisked together in under a minute and is poured over the still-warm (but not piping hot) cake.
  6. The lemon buttermilk cake then needs to rest on your countertop for at least an hour before slicing and serving. 
Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze - An easy little cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!

Is There a Buttermilk Substitute I Can Use? 

This lemon buttermilk cake should be made with real buttermilk for the best results.

I suppose potentially you could sour regular milk with 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar mixed with 1/2 cup of 2% or whole milk, let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes, and then use it in the recipe.

You can use powdered buttermilk instead and prepare it as instructed on the package. 

Can the Lemon Extract Be Substituted? 

You could technically substitute the lemon extract with vanilla extract, but I don’t recommend doing so as that would seriously diminish the lemony flavor of this cake. 

Also, do NOT substitute lemon oil for the lemon extract. They’re two different products and can’t be used in place of each other!

Can I Double This Lemon Cake Recipe? 

Yes, you can double this lemon cake recipe from scratch and bake it in a 9×13-inch pan instead. Note that the baking time may need to be increased. 

Can I Use Cake Flour Instead of All-Purpose? 

Possibly, but I’ve only made this lemon buttermilk cake recipe as instructed so I can’t speak to whether cake flour would deliver the same results and if you’d have to alter other things in the recipe.

Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze - An easy little cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!

Tips for Making Lemon Buttermilk Cake

Lemon JuiceFreshly squeezed lemon juice is a must when making this homemade lemon cake. The pre-bottled stuff just doesn’t taste the same and since this is a lemon cake you really should use real lemon juice for best results and flabor.

Glaze – When making the lemon glaze for the cake, you may need to add a little extra lemon juice or powdered sugar to get it to the right consistency. The glaze should be on the thicker side, but easily pourable. 

Don’t Need to Wait – Note that it’s fine to pour the lemon glaze onto the still-warm cake. You don’t want the cake to be super hot, but warm is fine. It’ll actually cause the glaze to penetrate into the cake a bit more.

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4.42 from 144 votes

Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze

By Averie Sunshine
An easy buttermilk cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!! This is the easiest from-scratch lemon cake EVER!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Cooling Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Servings: 9
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Ingredients  

Cake

  • 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • pinch salt, optional and to taste
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • cup sour cream, lite is okay (plain Greek yogurt may be substituted)
  • ¼ cup lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons lemon extract, vanilla extract may be substituted

Glaze

  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • cup lemon juice, or as necessary for consistency
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest, or to taste

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.

For the Cake:

  • In a large bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, optional salt.
  • Whisk in zemon zest; set aside.
  • In a separate small bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk*, sour cream, lemon juice, oil, and lemon extract.
  • Add the wet mixture to the dry, mixing lightly with a spoon or folding with a spatula until just combined. Small lumps will be present, don’t overmix or try to stir them smooth.
  • Turn batter out into prepared pan and bake for about 28 to 31 minutes, or until center is set and not jiggly, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
  • Place pan on a wire rack and allow cake to cool. While cake cools, make the glaze.

For the Glaze:

  • In a medium bowl, add 2 cup confectioners’ sugar, 1/3 cup lemon juice, and whisk until smooth. As necessary, add additional lemon juice (or sugar) to reach desired glaze consistency. I used slightly over 1/3 cup lemon juice. Glaze should be easily pourable.
  • Evenly pour glaze over cake (doesn’t have to be fully cooled), smoothing it lightly with a spatula if necessary, but glaze will likely just slide into place.
  • Allow cake to cool in pan uncovered for at least 1 hour (or overnight and cover with a sheet of foil) before slicing and serving so glaze can set up. Cake will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Notes

*This lemon buttermilk cake should be made with real buttermilk for the best results.
You could sour regular milk with 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar mixed with 1/2 cup of 2% or whole milk, let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes, and then use it in the recipe.
You can use powdered buttermilk instead and prepare it as instructed on the package. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1, Calories: 297kcal, Carbohydrates: 57g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 26mg, Sodium: 164mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 42g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Soft and Chewy Lemon Cookies — Packed with big, bold lemon flavor for all you lemon lovers! They’re soft, chewy and not at all cakey!!

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The Best Lemon Bars – Truly the best classic lemon bars! 

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Blueberry Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze — The cake is packed with sweet, juicy blueberries and while there’s lemon in the batter, it’s the lemon glaze that really brings out the tartly-sweet lemon flavor that complements the blueberries so well.

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Lemon Olive Oil Cake – My new FAVORITE lemon dessert of all time!! Lemon zest, juice, extract, and Limoncello add so much AMAZING lemon flavor to this EASY, ridiculously moist no-mixer cake that’s unique and INCREDIBLE!!

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Lemon Coconut White Chocolate Gooey Bars — The lemon base is soft and chewy, there’s coconut and white chocolate chips for extra texture, and sweetened condensed milk peeks through the top.

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Originally published October 14, 2014 and republished March 17, 2023 with updated text.

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

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Comments

  1. I sometimes have hundreds of comments to sort through, it’s just one aspect of my job. And I don’t get to them all the day they are left. Sometimes it takes a bit of time as it’s not the most pressing thing on my plate many days.

    It’s unfortunate you didn’t like the cake and found it “too lemony”. However, what did you expect with a lemon cake + lemon glaze, that is titled as such? Plus all the ways lemon is used in the cake (zest, extract)? And I was very explicit in the post about how lemony it is. There should be no surprise there. Most people have really loved it. You did not, okay it happens. Now you can move on and try something else.

  2. Hi Averie,
    It was tasty although it didn’t rise. I don’t know what could have gone wrong? I did it to the T except that I used El Salvadorian Sour Cream and I accidentally used 1/8 more of sugar than i should have because I miss took my 1/3 cup for 1/4 cup

    1. My guess is this is could be your your culprit: El Salvadorian Sour Cream for why it didn’t rise but I don’t know. It’s not the sugar, that’s irrelevant here.

      However the bigger culprit could be expired or just a bad batch of baking powder since 2 full teaspoons is significant here and my hunch it’s this.

      Thanks for trying the cake. Replace the baking powder with new and I bet you will be fine!

      1. OMG AVERIE! You are correct – my baking powder expired in August 2019! I am so sorry and thanks for finding my issue – I will def try again!

  3. 5 stars
    This cake was extremely moist and full of lemon flavor! The lemon glaze seemed to sink into the cake, making it even denser than I expected.

  4. 5 stars
    This cake was extremely moist and full of lemon flavor! The lemon glaze seemed to sink into the cake, making it even denser than I expected.

  5. Must the lemon juice be freshly squeezed? I’m going to try this recipe for a layer cake since 8” square is equivalent to 9” round, so 3 batches for a 3-layer cake.

    1. No. but it’s 1/4 cup in the batter and since you need to zest a lemon, you may as well then use the juice. Since this is a lemon cake, I do recommend fresh lemon juice and not bottled but you can decide.

  6. 5 stars
    Excellent! This cake is very tasty and moist! I waited about 30 minutes before pouring the glaze on top. I used less  than  1/3 c. of lemon juice in the glaze – – closer to 1/4 c. The directions didn’t indicate when to add the zest, so I just added it  a few minutes after pouring on the glaze.  I took this dessert to a dinner party and it was a big hit!! 

  7. 5 stars
    Excellent! This cake is very tasty and moist! I waited about 30 minutes before pouring the glaze on top. I used less  than  1/3 c. of lemon juice in the glaze – – closer to 1/4 c. The directions didn’t indicate when to add the zest, so I just added it  a few minutes after pouring on the glaze.  I took this dessert to a dinner party and it was a big hit!! 

  8. This cake is really good & so easy, although yours is much prettier than mine!  The glaze (which is delicious) dripped down the sides of the cake, so there was not much left on top. 
    Please  tell me how you lined the foil? And, is it’s purpose to keep the glaze on top of the cake?
    Thanks for another great recipe. 

    1. No it’s just for easier cleanup but it is not mandatory.

      The photos I take and the presentation come with years of practice and very steady hands. Don’t worry if yours doesn’t look exactly like mine!

  9. 5 stars
    Very moist and lots of flavor for this cake, we loved it! I cut down the sugar but had the glaze and it all combined perfectly. Will do this one again, thank you!

  10. 5 stars
    Very moist and lots of flavor for this cake, we loved it! I cut down the sugar but had the glaze and it all combined perfectly. Will do this one again, thank you!

    1. Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad that the cake was great even with reduced sugar!

    1. Not sure I have only made the recipe as written. Do a Google search on volumes of both pans and then decide if you need to double the volume or not.

  11. Hi Averie, am looking for a recipe for buttermilk lemon cake and glad to find this recipe of yours. I have powdered buttermilk, so will appreciate your advice on the quantity i should use for powdered buttermilk. would it also be 1/2 cup of powdered buttermilk?

    Thanks in advance!

    1. They all differ a bit. I would follow the box instructions to get yourself 1/2 cup liquid buttermilk, add how much ever water + powder is called for.