This rich lemon honey bundt cake is loaded with the honey flavor and the perfect amount of lemon. Top it with the caramelized honey glaze for an extra special treat.
Honey and lemon are a perfect match. They come together beautifully in this Italian Bundt cake. It is the perfect mix of sweet and tart and the texture of the cake itself is great thanks to buttermilk and sour cream.
The glaze melts in to take it to the next level of amazing. It is perfect for any special occasion.
I know it is hard to believe, but at one point MiMi was the dessert committee for our family. I seem to have taken that over in the last few years.
My cousins would rave over her sweets. My siblings and I didn’t know how good we had it.
This was one of the cakes she made in 2016. It thought it was time to freshen it up with some new pictures. I am glad I did, as this cake is delicious!
Carlee’s Tips For Making This Bundt Cake Recipe
Start with softened butter and room temperature eggs, sour cream and buttermilk to make incorporating everything easier. From there the batter is super simple.
This cake is absolutely loaded with honey, it is the predominant flavor. So you may want to use a mild to moderate flavored honey unless you are a HUGE honey fan.
A fun fruity orange blossom style honey would be lovely. It might even be fun to use a little lavender honey or something if you like a bit of floral.
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For a bolder lemon flavor, feel free to add a bit of lemon extract. It is easy to alter the recipe a bit to get it just the way you want it!
Making the Lemon Honey Glaze
The glaze is also super simple to make. Start by stirring together a little lemon juice, sugar and honey.
Melt it over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Then let it continue cooking until it is bubbly and golden brown, a few minutes should do it.
Stir in a pinch of salt, cream and butter to round out the caramelly goodness. Let it cool while the cake finishes baking.
Pouring the mostly cool glaze over the still warm cake allows some of it to sink into the cake. For a cleaner finish, glaze the cake over a wire rack and allow the excess to drip onto a sheet pan.
If you don’t mind a little pool of glaze around your cake, go ahead and do it with the cake on the cake plate. Either way, it will taste amazing!
This cake does not need additional frosting. However, if you want a little something extra some honey whipped cream goes fabulously with it.
Italian Lemon Honey Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1½ cups honey
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- 4 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- ½ cup buttermilk
Glaze
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 300°F
- Combine 3 cups all purpose flour, 1½ teaspoon baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt with a whisk and set aside.
- Cream 1 cup unsalted butter and 1½ cups honey until light and fluffy.
- Beat in 3 large eggs, one at a time. Mix in ½ cup sour cream, 4 Tablespoons lemon juice, 1 Tablespoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon almond extract.
- Mix ⅓ of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Mix in half of the ½ cup buttermilk and then add in another ⅓ of the flour mixture. Then mix in the rest of the buttermilk and finish by adding in the last ⅓ of the flour mixture. Mix just until combined.
- Pour cake batter into a greased Bundt pan.
- Bake for 60-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Turn the cake over on a wire rack or cake plate and remove the pan. Let cool before glazing.
Glaze
- While the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze. Combine the 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, ½ cup granulated sugar and ¼ cup honey in a medium pan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves into a liquid. Continue to cook without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally. Mixture will bubble and start to darken in color.
- Once mixture is a medium brown remove from heat. Carefully stir in the 2 Tablespoons butter. Add ¼ cup heavy cream and stir until smooth. Add 1 pinch salt and stir until combined.
- Let sauce cool until just warm before pouring over the cake.
Notes
- This recipe works well in a 10 cup Bundt pan.
- You can use milk soured with a tablespoon of lemon juice in place of the buttermilk.
Video
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This recipe was originally published in May of 2016. It was republished with new photos and an updated glaze recipe in 2021.
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Made this today for my mum for mother’s day, i halfed the recipe as I was using an old 5 cup bundet tin and added fresh ground ginger as its mums favourite flavour and worked great, thank you for such a great recipe and easy to follow
I am so glad you liked it. I’ll bet the ginger was great with the lemon and honey. Happy Mother’s Day to you mum!
Am baking the cake now . Is 300 the correct temperature?
That is correct. I hope you enjoy the cake!
Is this recipe meant for a 10 cup capacity bundt pan?
I usually make it in a 12-cup bundt pan, but my mom has made it in a 10-cup bundt pan with no problems.
Can I make this cake ahead of time to serve a couple of days later?
Yes, you can make it a day or two ahead of time. To make it further ahead of time, I would freeze it unglazed and then glaze it when it is defrosted.
Hello! Can you please tell me how long I’d bake this if I did it in a 6 cup mini Bundt pan instead of one large one? Thank you!!
I haven’t done it, so I am not 100% sure. I would start checking them around 25-30 minutes and keep an eye on them after that.
A unique cake which I surely want to cook. It is such a creative idea to include lemon in cake. Awesome!
Looks delicious! I made yesterday and its taste was awesome!
Isn't it so good? Thank you!
By the look of it this looks so nice. I will try this out this weekend.
Thanks Carlee 🙂
Thanks, Carol. I hope you enjoy it!
This cake is so soft right Carlee? I mean inside the cake, does it like sponge cake? I will try this new recipe today!
It's more like bundt or pound cake. It isn't overly dense, but it is super moist. I hope you love it!
@Carlee, I followed the recipe to a tee, mine came out dense, what could I have done wrong?
Oh no, it’s hard to say. It is a denser, pound cake type texture to start with. But a few things could be check to make sure your baking powder is fresh. Otherwise it could be overmixing when adding the flour. I hope it was still tasty even if it was dense.
Just bought my very first bunt cake, so I'm going to try this soon! We love lemon cake and this one sounds amazing. Pinning!
Just think of all of the delicious cakes you can make! Thank you!