Lemon Orange Cake with Lemon Honey Glaze
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This Lemon Orange Cake with Lemon Honey Glaze is a delicious citrusy cake, easy to make and topped with an incredible lemon honey glaze for a little extra tang and sweetness!
You all know I love my lemon desserts like Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake and Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Loaf, it must be the citrus flavor I love so much! This cake packs a double whammy of citrus tang thanks to both lemon juice and lots of orange juice. What can I tell you about this cake, other than it’s moist, it’s citrusy and it’s so freaking good.
I’m making this cake completely from scratch today, no boxed cake on my counter. We’re going to achieve tons of moisture, flavor, and light airy cake crumb this way. Top all that fluffy citrus cake with a lemon honey glaze and you’ve got something special on your hands.
Ingredients
Detailed measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card on the bottom of the page.
Lemon orange cake
- Flour – All purpose flour works just fine for this recipe.
- Leavening agents – Both baking powder and baking soda.
- Salt – Salt is so important in any and all baked goods.
- Citrus – We’re using both lemon and orange juice as well as the zest from both fruits.
- Butter – Unsalted as we want to control the sodium in our dessert.
- Sugar – Just plain old granulated white sugar for a nice clean flavor.
- Milk – You can use any kind of milk you would like, regardless of fat content.
- Eggs – We’re using 5 eggs today, quite a bit I know but believe me you’ll want them.
Lemon honey glaze
- Sugar – We want powdered sugar for this glaze as granulated sugar will produce a grainy glaze. This will act as a thickened and binder for our glaze.
- Honey – This will add some syrupy sweetness to our cake.
- Lemon – We’re just using nice acidic lemon juice to carry that citrus taste through from our cake to our glaze.
How To Make Lemon Orange Cake
- Prepare the oven: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat a bundt pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- Combine the dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, combine together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk in the orange and lemon zest. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar: In the bowl of your electric mixer, use the paddle attachment to mix the butter and sugar together for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Form the batter: To the bowl of your mixer add the lemon juice, orange juice, milk, the eggs and mix to combine. Begin adding the flour mixture a little bit at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix for a couple minutes until the batter is smooth and all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Bake the cake: Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 50 min to an hour until done. Check the center of the cake with a toothpick and if it comes out clean it’s done.
- Prepare the glaze: To make the lemon honey glaze whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Finish the cake: Let the cake cool on a wire rack. Once cool, drizzle the cake with the lemon honey glaze and decorate with additional lemon or orange zest if preferred.
How Much Juice Is In Our Citrus Fruits?
This answer varies quite a bit depending on the size of your lemon or orange. A lemon holds about 3 tablespoons of juice while an orange holds about 4 tablespoons. Be sure your fruits are at room temperature and roll them firmly between your hand and the counter before juicing.
Some Tips
- I’ve found that they key to ensuring this cake stays nice and moist is really giving it some time to cool down on your counter. Allow it to sit for as long as you can wait!
- If you can wait long enough I find that this cake is even better the next day.
- Sometimes where you place your loaf pan in the oven can make a difference, some swear by baking their loaves near the top of the oven whereas some prefer the middle. Here’s a handy guide explaining the science behind rack placement. So play around and see what works best with your oven!
- The best way to avoid a mess when glazing is to place the loaf on a wire cooling rack over a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, clean up time will be cut in half!
Make Ahead?
Yes you can! If you’d like to make this just a few days in advance feel free to store this cake right on the counter for up to 3 days just be sure to cover it to prevent it from drying out. The glaze can also be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
Freezer
If you’d prefer to store in the freezer, wrap the cake tightly in aluminum foil before placing in a large ziploc bag, be sure to press out as much of the air in the bag as possible before sealing. This method will keep your cake fresh for up to 4 months. To thaw you’ll want to keep it wrapped in foil as it thaws on your counter for up to 3 hours.
Don’t glaze your loaf before putting it in the freezer, the glaze can become runny while thawing.
Craving More Lemon? Try These Delicious Recipes:
- Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
- Old Fashioned Lemon Bread
- Lemon Blueberry Scones
- Lemon Yogurt Cake
- Strawberry Lemon Bundt Cake
- Lemon Poppy Seed Bread With Lemon Icing
- Lemon Bars
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Lemon Orange Cake with Lemon Honey Glaze
Ingredients
Lemon Orange Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon orange zest (grated)
- 2 tablespoon lemon zest (grated)
- 1 cup butter (unsalted and softened)
- 1 1/4 cup sugar (white)
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 3/4 cup milk
- 5 eggs
Lemon Honey Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously coat a bundt pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk in the orange and lemon zest. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, use the paddle attachment to mix the butter and sugar together for 2 to 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- To the bowl of your mixer add the lemon juice, orange juice, milk, the eggs and mix to combine. Begin adding the flour mixture a little bit at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix for a couple minutes until the batter is smooth and all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 50 min to an hour until done. Check the center of the cake with a toothpick and if it comes out clean it’s done.
- To make the lemon honey glaze whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
- Let cake cool on a wire rack. Once cool, drizzle the cake with the lemon honey glaze and decorate with additional lemon or orange zest if preferred.
Notes
Recipe originally shared March 2011.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
it’s really good. i would recommend adding more sugar than the recipe calls for.
Overall very tasty with just the right amount of citrus to give it a bright flavor. The cake itself is not too sweet and rather dense so the glaze was a nice touch. I only had one loaf pan so I cut the recipe in half and it baked beautifully. I also added a little vanilla extract for good measure. As another reviewer had mentioned, the wet ingredients curdled when mixed with the citrus juices. This was discouraging initially, but turned out completely fine. The parents in law say this is a make again!
For some reason after I creamed my butter and sugar, it curdled when I added the lemon and orange juice and eggs. Had to throw it out. Does anyone know why?
It doesn’t matter if it curdled, just continue to add the rest of the ingredients and the cake will be fine.
Mine doesn’t look as airy as the photos (did I overbeat?), but it looks beautiful and tastes amazing. I used a 1/2 cup less sugar and 1/4 cup less butter because I ran out. It’s still delicious.
It may be because of over-mixing! As long as it tastes great, that’s what matters 😉
Delicious, I’m making it this morning!
I tried the recipe a few months ago and it was amazing! I loved it so much! I was wondering if you can use the exact recipe to make cupcakes instead? Is it going to work or should I stick to the cake? Thank you!
Sure, why not! Watch the baking, it’ll take less time.
is it moist?
Yeah, it’s pretty moist inside.
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us. Must one use 5 eggs, may i use fewer eggs?
You can try it out! The result may be different.
I have oranges that need using & lemons in abundance in my garden so think I’ll try it. Have you tried this as individual cakes/muffins? Wondered about doing it as mini syrup cakes, but didn’t know if it would work & if I would adjust the cooking time?
We haven’t tried but feel free to give it a go! Keep a close eye on them as they bake and use the toothpick test.
This cake is amazing! I’ve made it three times in the past month. It’s the right amount of tart and sweet. My mom requested it today for her birthday!
I am trying this tonight, 05/04/20, Question, can I use buttermilk for the milk ?
Thank you
For sure!
This cake was so easy to make and SO delicious!!!! I am so happy with this and will be using it to get my citrus cake fix.
I want to try this recipe! Can I substitute almond milk for the milk?….cause my husband is lactose intolerant.
Yes you can!
Great cake!! Tastes amazing and the texture is great. Saving it to make it again and again
This turned out great! There were a few dicey moments when I thought there was too much liquid and couldn’t quite get the mix smooth (I did it by hand) but it turned out to be a fluffy little delight. I iced half and left one half un-iced for my husband who prefers only a touch of sweetness. Can’t wait to have this with coffee tomorrow morning.
Happy to hear it! Enjoy!