This delicious Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake is fresh, zesty and a wonderfully light dessert to enjoy in Spring or Summer. It consists of a deliciously moist lemon cake, with bursts of raspberry throughout and a tart lemon glaze. If you love refreshing flavors, this cake is for you.

This lemon raspberry bundt cake recipe uses fresh lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice, so you don't need any artificial lemon extract. Even though the texture of the cake itself is incredibly moist, there is a sweet lemon glaze poured over the top of the cake just for an added zing of flavor and moisture. The raspberries complement the lemon flavor so beautifully.
This recipe would also work for mini bundt cakes and would look similar to my Mini Blueberry Bundt Cakes, which are another tasty dessert using fruit. I also have an amazing Mini Bundt Cake recipe which makes 6 different flavors of bundt cake with one base recipe! If you love lemon desserts though, you should definitely try out my easy Lemon Drizzle Cake!
Ingredients
- Butter - Unsalted butter is best for this recipe.
- Sugar - You want white sugar - try to find 'extra-fine' white sugar, or 'caster sugar' in the UK.
- Eggs - Use large eggs and always free-range if you can.
- Lemons - Make sure your lemons are unwaxed, you'll know by feeling them, if they have a slightly rubbery feeling on the skin then they are coated in wax. We want to avoid this as we'll be zesting the lemon and don't want to put wax in our cake! If you can't find unwaxed lemons, or you picked up waxed lemons accidentally, soak them in very hot water for a minute and scrub with a clean scrubbing brush to remove the wax. Then rinse with cold water and leave to dry.
- Flour - All-purpose flour is great for this recipe, you can also use cake flour if you have it, or self-raising flour (just omit the baking powder and baking soda).
- Raspberries - I like to use frozen raspberries in this recipe - unless it's raspberry season, in which case I'll use fresh raspberries. Honestly either will work well so it's down to what is available and your personal preference. If you are using fresh raspberries, just make sure you are gentle with them when mixing them into the batter so they don't break.
- Milk - Whole milk is best but whatever you have will do.
- Vanilla Extract - Even though this is a lemon cake, we want to add some vanilla to provide a good flavor baseline for our lemons. Try to use vanilla extract and not vanilla essence.
- Icing Sugar - Also known as powdered sugar or confectioners sugar. This is just for the glaze so if you don't want to glaze your lemon raspberry cake then you won't need this.
Note: Make sure you remove your butter, eggs, and milk from the fridge about an hour before beginning to bake so they can come to room temperature
See recipe card for exact measurements.
Instructions
- Prepare your lemons. If you need to de-wax your lemons, do this before you start anything else. (See notes above on how to de-wax lemons).
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C and grease your bundt pan very well. I use a cake release spray, but you can also use a good cooking spray or butter.
- Zest both lemons and put the zest into a small bowl. Then cut them in half squeeze the lemon juice into a separate bowl. Set both aside until later.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. If you are using a stand mixer, you want to use the paddle attachment, but if not then a hand mixer or a wooden spoon and some elbow grease will do!
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until completely combined.
- Sift the dry ingredients, including the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, into a large bowl.
- Add half of the flour mixture to the lemon cake batter and fold in.
- Add the milk, fresh lemon juice and lemon zest and mix until completely combined.
- Fold in the remaining half of the flour mixture.
- Add the raspberries and mix until they are evenly dispersed throughout the cake batter.
- Pour batter into your prepared pan and smooth the top so it's level. I used a 10-inch bundt pan and the batter came up to about ⅔ full, which leaves plenty of room (and could even fit more if you wanted it bigger). So this recipe would also fit a 9-inch bundt pan easily.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean.
- For best results, let the lemon raspberry bundt cake sit in the pan for exactly 10 minutes before trying to remove it from the pan. Invert the bundt cake onto a wire rack.
- Let the lemony bundt cake cool completely before trying to decorate or slice. Transfer the cooled cake to a serving plate before icing as the glaze may drip down.
- To make the lemon icing, add all glaze ingredients into a medium bowl and mix together until there are no lumps, then simply pour over the top of the bundt cake.
- For a finishing touch, sprinkle some fresh lemon zest over the top of the glaze.
Equipment
- Bundt Pan - Of course, to make a lemon raspberry bundt cake you will need a bundt pan! The one I used for this recipe is a Nordicware Heritage Bundt Pan, it's cast iron so it's super heavy but always gives great results - plus it's pretty! But you can make this lemon bundt cake with any bundt pan. Mine is a 6 cup bundt pan and there was some room left in the pan.
- Zester - you'll also need a zester to zest the lemons.
- Mixer - a stand mixer or electric mixer is not necessary but it definitely makes it an easy process!
Variations
Some ideas for easy variations on this recipe:
- Orange zest and juice instead of lemons
- For a more simple bundt cake, you could leave out the raspberries and have it as lemon only
- For an extra touch, you could swirl some lemon curd or raspberry jam in the middle of the batter, halfway through filling the bundt pan.
Storage
Despite popular opinion, cake is actually NOT best kept in the fridge (unless it has some form of dairy as a frosting or filling). Keep this lemon raspberry bundt cake in an airtight container at room temperature. Place some kitchen towel on the base of the container, underneath the cake to soak up any condensations.
If you don't have an airtight container big enough, you can also tightly wrap the cake in plastic wrap - but make sure you use at least two layers to make sure the cake doesn't dry out.
The cake will keep this way for 3-5 days.
Similar Dessert Recipes
If you love the fresh and tart flavors of this Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake, you may also enjoy some of these recipes:
Recipe
Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Raspberry Lemon Bundt Cake
- 1 ¼ sticks Butter 127g
- 1 ¼ cup White Sugar 250g
- 3 Eggs
- 2 Lemons
- 2 cups Flour 240g
- 1 ⅕ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ⅔ cup Milk 160ml
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups Raspberries 240g (frozen or fresh)
For the Lemon Glaze
- 1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- 1 cup Icing Sugar 120g
- ¼ cup Lemon Juice 60ml
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Make the Raspberry Lemon Bundt Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C and thoroughly grease your bundt pan.
- Zest the two lemons, then juice them into a separate bowl and set aside.2 Lemons
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.1 ¼ sticks Butter, 1 ¼ cup White Sugar
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of your bowl.3 Eggs, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Sift the flour into a bowl with the baking powder, baking soda and salt.2 cups Flour, 1 ⅕ teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda, ½ teaspoon Salt
- Add half the flour to your batter and fold in.
- Reserve ¼ cup of lemon juice for the glaze and add the remaining lemon juice to the batter along with the lemon zest and milk. Mix until completely combined.⅔ cup Milk
- Fold in the remaining flour.
- Add your raspberries and mix them so they are evenly dispersed throughout the batter.2 cups Raspberries
- Pour the batter into your well-greased bundt pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and leave to sit in the bundt pan for exactly 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack to cool. This is the optimum time I have found for releasing bundt cakes successfully.
For the Lemon Glaze
- Place all the ingredients for the glaze in a bowl and beat until there are no lumps, then pour over the top of the bundt cake.1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter, 1 cup Icing Sugar, ¼ cup Lemon Juice, ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Notes
- Make sure the pan is well greased - get into all the corners so there is nowhere for the cake to get stuck.
- Leave the cake in the pan for exactly 10 minutes after removing from the oven, then after 10 minutes, flip it onto a wire rack and carefully lift the pan.
It really helps and I love hearing all your feedback!
Amy M Hopkins
Anyone ever tried this recipe using gluten-free flour?
Jane Walker
Lovely recipe but my oven is gas and it took at least 65 minutes to cook .The lemon juice quantities for me were great but there was too much lemon glaze .
Debi
Worst Bundt cake recipe I’ve ever used. Wasted ingredients bad instructions.
Jane Walker
What went wrong with yours?
Shawn
This was amazing! Next level! MAKE IT.
I'm making it again right now
Debbie
You don't specify how much lemon juice goes into the batter. Do you save 1/4 cup for the glaze? Also baking this cake 30-35 minutes is a mistake. I baked this cake for 60-65 minutes in a 6 cup bundt pan. 35 minutes it was so underbaked. The cake came out okay, I probably needed to bake it for 70 minutes.
Charles L.
In the instructions, you say add lemon juice to batter but don't see how much to add and I feel the portions are off for the glaze. It was too runny, I just added more powdered sugar and wondering if the butter was supposed to be melted.
Hoping it turns out delicious for tonight!!!
Pam
Help! I am going to make this tomorrow and need to know how much lemon juice goes into the cake batter. It just calls for the juice of 2 lemons. My lemons are small.
Jules
Hi Pam, 2 small lemons will work totally fine, just make sure you squeeze them well! The exact amount doesn't matter too much in this recipe. If in doubt, you could always taste test the batter and if you still want to punch up the flavor a little you can squeeze a little juice from a third lemon in there. I hope you love the cake!
Jules
Kp
Any alternative for tried eggless fail proof option? Looking for eggless cakes
Pam
I used 2 small lemons and the cake turned out perfectly. Tastes divine.
Valerie
Made this recipe for mini bundt cakes and they were delicious! The taste of lemon was very good and I used fresh raspberries. They turned out a little more fluffy and light that I would expect for a bundt cake. They were ready in ~20 minutes because of the smaller size. Thanks for the recipe!
Jules
Mini bundt cakes are super cute! I'm so glad you liked the recipe! Thank you for taking the time to let me know 🙂
Twyla
I'm confused about how much lemon juice to use in the cake. I'm assuming juice both lemons, then reserve 1/4 cup for the frosting and add the reminder to cake.
Jules
Hi Twyla, That's exactly right! My apologies if this isn't clear enough in the recipe - I will review the wording and see if I can improve the wording a little!
Rebecca Bone
The recipe didn't say reserve the lemon juice for icing. I put all the juice in the cake. Too moist. I wrote on copy to do what you suggested.. it Is tasty.3 stars only due to recipe instructions not more clear.
Andrea
Lemon and raspberry is such a classic combination! Could eat this whole cake by myself