Moist Lemon or Orange Pound Loaf, a wonderful soft and delicious cake using freshly squeezed juice and zest. Bake in a loaf or bundt pan. You choose!

This Moist Lemon or Orange pound, loaf cake is absolutely delicious!

The cake texture is not quite as dense as a regular pound cake, but a little fluffier, and the sponge is soft and moist.

For this recipe, you can make this pound/loaf cake using lemons or oranges, or even split and do a combination of lemon and orange if you prefer.

I've used my basic Vanilla pound cake recipe and simply switched a few flavors and added the lemon or orange syrup to give it a lovely extra hit of citrus after baking.

This moist lemon or orange pound loaf cake is a perfect addition to an English Afternoon Tea, or to have a slice with a morning coffee. You can take to a picnic, or add a slice to a lunch box. I've taken this cake to my previous job several times and everyone in the office always raved about it and asked me to make it so many times. It was definitely a favorite!

We've got a huge variety of delicious pound cake recipes so be sure to check them out. There's a flavor for everyone!

Once you've tried this recipe, I am sure you will make it time and time again. After spending many years searching for a good 'pound' cake that wasn't dry, or flavorless, I decided to experiment and make my own recipe up with different flavor combinations to see if I could really get a moist cake.

This recipe for lemon or orange pound loaf cake uses fresh ingredients. So make sure you use fresh orange or lemon juice and zest. it really does make a difference to the flavor!

This is lovely served with some of our lemon whipped cream. It takes minutes to make and is a lovely pairing.

If you're looking for a few recipes to make for an Afternoon Tea, try our Traditional English Tea Loaf. It's always popular and really easy to make too!

If you enjoy lemon cakes, why not try our delicious Lemon Steamed Cake. It's made in the steamer or multi-cooker (like Instant pot) and so fluffy! If you wanted to make an orange flavor steamed cake, just swap the lemon ingredients for orange and you're good to go!

The recipe I am sharing is for you to make either a lemon or orange-flavored cake. So just choose the option for either from the ingredients below!

So here's the recipe, and enjoy!

Ingredients

The Cake Batter

225 g or 1 3/4 cups Plain / All purpose flour (sieved)
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/4 Teaspoon salt
175 g or 3/4 cup softened butter
200 g or 1 cup regular sugar
2/3 Cup or 150 ml Milk
2 Large eggs (lightly beaten)
Grated Zest and Juice of 1 Lemon or 1/2 Orange

The Syrup

(The syrup is optional but gives the cake an extra hit of orange or lemon)

1 Tablespoon regular sugar (you can reduce the amount if you don't want it too sweet)
1 1/2 tablespoons warm water
zest of 1 lemon (or 1 orange)
juice of 1 lemon (or 1/2 orange)

NOTES

Depending on how much your cake has risen and what size pan you have used, make up the whole recipe for the syrup, but be prepared you may only need half of it. The smaller your cake, the less syrup you will need.

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 170C, 325F. Grease and line your baking tin. See here for how to line a pan.
** Please note, if using a Bundt tin, be sure to grease it very well as it can be hard to get the cake out of such a shaped tin.

2. Get all your ingredients ready, i.e zest and juice the lemon/orange, sieve the flour and add the salt and baking powder to the flour etc.

3. Start with making the cake batter by creaming the butter and sugar until a pale light color.

4. Slowly add the beaten eggs to the mixer, on a low-speed setting, a bit at a time. If the mixture starts to curdle or split, add a spoonful of your sieved flour, keep on adding the eggs, and a bit of flour if necessary until all the eggs are added.

5. Add half the milk with half of the flour, keeping the mixer on a slow speed. Once combined, add the lemon/orange juice, and zest, the rest of the milk and flour.

6 Transfer the cake mixture to the greased and lined loaf tin, then place in the oven for 1 hr to 1 hr and 5 minutes, check after 1 hour.

***** Please note, if using a Bundt tin, cook time is about 45 minutes.

(In this photo below I added a handful of cranberries to the mix too!) Feel free to add some nuts, such as pecans or walnuts, dried fruit etc. You only need a handful).

7. Have a cup of tea!

8. Now make the syrup by adding all the ingredients to a small saucepan, (or use a bowl and microwave for 1 -2 minutes) heat through until the sugar is dissolved. Put aside.

9. When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and leave in the cake tin until cool. Using a skewer, prick holes all over the top of the cake, pushing the skewer through to the bottom of the cake.

Gently pour the syrup mixture all over the surface of the cake, distributing evenly. The liquid will be quickly absorbed by the cake. The syrup will keep the cake moist and also give it a nice glossy shine, with sprinklings of zest on the top.

If you think there is too much syrup for your cake, don't use all of it. Often it will depend on the size of your cake, how much it has risen, what size loaf pan you have used. I used a large loaf pan, so needed all the syrup.

Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container.

If you'd like to add a Lemon Buttercream Frosting to make this fancy, for example to make a birthday cake, we can recommend this one from The Kitchen Is My Playground. 

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our Moist Lemon or Orange Pound, Loaf Cake recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

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