Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake – tender and moist lemon poppy seed cake with a lemon butter glaze.
Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
This Lemon Poppy Seed Cake is one of my favorite cakes on the blog. I’ve made it as a layered cake and used it as the base of my Orange Poppy Seed Cake and my Grapefruit Poppy Seed Cake. Now, it’s a bundt!
I shared a video on my IGTV with the tutorial and recipe but didn’t get a chance to write the blog post with all the details until now.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
The recipe for this bundt cake is simply my Lemon Poppy Seed Cake, but with a glaze instead of buttercream. I know many of you have already fallen in love with this cake recipe from the layered version, so I know you’ll absolutely die over this bundt cake version, as well.
And if you haven’t tried this cake or even a layered cake yet, I think you’ll find that this bundt cake is not only delicious but super easy too!
The recipe for this Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake is the exact same as the layered cake, but the time and temperature we are baking the bundt cake are different. When we combine the wet and dry ingredients it will be a lot! Because we have too much batter in one pan, we have to bake at a lower temperature for a longer time so we get a more even bake on this cake. This is a rich and dense cake that tastes divine!
How to Make Sure Your Cake Doesn’t Stick to Your Bundt Pan
The key to making sure your Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt cake doesn’t stick to the pan is twofold:
- Make sure to spray your pan with nonstick spray and dust it with flour.
- Allow your cake to cool completely for at least 30 to 60 minutes before you invert it onto a wire rack.
Lemon Butter Glaze
The glaze is super simple, but don’t let that fool you! This glaze is what makes the cake, in my opinion. You’ll simply combine melted butter, lemon juice, and powdered sugar. That’s it!
You’ll see in the picture above that I’ve placed my Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake on a cooling rack on top of a jelly roll pan. I did this so that I could coat my bundt cake with the lemon butter glaze several times. After the first glaze, scoop the leftover glaze back into your bowl and pour it over the cake again. I did this about four times. I then placed my cake on a cake stand with a rim and poured the glaze over the cake one more time. This will then allow the cake to soak up the glaze from the bottom, as well. This is the bundt pan I use. A fun thing I learned- a bundt pan is a type of tube pan! A tube pan is perfect for pound-style or butter cakes.
Alright, you’re all set to whip up this delicious and easy bundt cake.
Enjoy!
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Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
- 6 egg whites at room temperature
- 1 cup (240 g) sour cream at room temperature
- 1 cup (230 g) lemon juice
- zest of one large lemon
- 3 cups (345 g) cake flour
- 1 tbsp (10 g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5 g) salt
- 3 tbsp (27 g) poppy seeds soak in water for an hour before making the cake
FOR THE GLAZE
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 cup (120 g) lemon juice
- 2 cups (250 g) powdered sugar measured and then sifted
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray your bundt pan (I use this one
) with nonstick spray, coat with flour and set aside. - In a medium size mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and poppy seeds. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar together on medium speed for about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the egg whites, in three additions, making sure to mix well between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the sour cream and mix.
- With the mixer on low speed alternately add the flour mixture and the lemon juice to the butter mixture, starting and finishing with the flour mixture. Mix until combined.
- Pour the batter into your prepared bundt pan. Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Let the cake cool in the bundt pan for at least 30 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Trying to remove the cake from the pan too quickly is usually what causes the cake to stick and fall apart. I left my cake in the pan for an hour before flipping it.
FOR THE GLAZE
- Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth.
ASSEMBLY
- Place the bundt cake on a cooling rack that is set on top of a cooking tray. Pour the glaze over the cake. Once you've used all the glaze, scoop the leftover glaze on the cookie sheet, back into a cup to pour over the cake again. You'll repeat this 3 to 4 times.
- After you've coated the cake 3 to 4 times, place your bundt cake on a cake stand with a rim. Pour the glaze over the cake one more time. Now the cake will soak in the glaze a bit before serving.
What size Bundt pan?🤩
10-15 cup
Can I make the cake ahead of time and freeze? Adding glaze prior to serving?
Yes!
I had high hopes for this and followed the recipe exactly, even weighing out ingredients and bringing everything to room temperature but it came out bland, not sweet and the top/glaze was too sour and dense where it soaked in. The consistency was like angel food cake. I used swans down cake flour. Anyone know where I might have gone wrong?
Sometimes that can happen if you pack in your cake flour instead of spooning and leveling.
Good call! I thought I did but I’ll make double sure I do next time, thanks!
He said he weighed out his ingredients, so I don’t think that would make it bland. I have not made this yet, but 1/2 c lemon juice for the glaze is A LOT…. 1c of lemon juice for the batter is a lot. I could see why the glaze was sour
What size bundt pan?
10-15 cup
Can I omit the poppy seeds?
Yes
Do you use fresh lemons or lemon juice out of bottle. If fresh, how many lemons does this take?
I use fresh and its about 8 lemons.
How much water do you soak the poppyseeds in?
what do you do with the yellow part of the egg, since you are using the egg whites.
Do you beat the egg whites first or just add them? would it matter if I used the whole egg?
I save them for making lemon curd or a custard. Whole eggs will change the texture of the cake.
Do you beat the egg whites before adding them?
Do you beat the egg whites. Please let me know I want to make this cake.
I was wondering if I can make this cake in 8” pans? What would I need to change in the cooking time and how many 8” cakes would it make?
It would be 3 8-inch pans. About half the time.
Would I be able to make this cake in 8″ round cake pans? If so, what would I need to change about the cooking time?
Yes you can. Half the time and check on them!
Can I substitute buttermilk for the sour cream?
Sure!
I found that the bake time was short for me, I checked it at 50min and was still soupy in the middle, took another 20min on top of that to bake till it was finished. I had it on the middle rack but I think another bundt cake recipe I did said the bottom rack and maybe that was why it was so slow to bake? Otherwise its looks great, going to eat it tonight!
Hi Courtney,
My cake turned out awful. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what went wrong. All my ingredients were room temp. Cake was extremely dense and tasted pasty. I mixed just until ingredients were combined decently.
I’ve made your Apple Cider Bundt a few times and that turned out beautifully. Any thoughts?
Did you mix the butter sugar and eggs really well? Until light and fluffy and smooth?
Do you beat the egg whites???!
Hi Courtney~
I am wondering if I omit the poppy seeds, but want to add fresh blueberries, what would the quantity be for the blueberries, and would there be any changes/additions to the recipe, or baking time?
Many thanks! Gretchen
I would use one cup small blueberries. I don’t think there would be any other changes
I am going to make this bundt cake. I love lemon. For the lemon juice, do you use fresh lemons? please let know as soon as possible. I want to make soon.
Regards, Diane Rex
I like to use fresh lemon juice.
DO YOU BEAT THE WHITES BEFORE YOU ADD THEM?????
DO YOU BEAT THE WHITES BEFORE YOU ADD THEM?????
I need a response PLEASE
Do you beat the egg whites until stiff before adding
This recipe was so sour, I love lemon flavor anything, but a cup of lemon juice in this cake felt like way too much. Turned out not very sweet and almost inedible. First recipe by Courtney I haven’t enjoyed.