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This Limoncello Cake with Limoncello Glaze is one of my favorite cakes! Made with store bought or homemade limoncello.
Table of Contents
Why Limoncello Cake?
My husband has an interesting hobby other than exploring great wines…
He makes his own Limoncello. Limoncello is an Italian liqueur made with the zest of lemons and is deliciously sweet.
My husband was traveling on a business trip to Italy many years ago and had dinner with about eight other people from work at a quaint restaurant in the Italian countryside. After they all finished dinner, their host placed a large pitcher of this beautiful, yellow beverage in the center of the table. Needless to say, they all enjoyed it tremendously and my husband asked his host about it. The owner of the restaurant, an elderly lady came out of the kitchen, sat down with my husband, explained the drink and and wrote out the recipe for him. That is where my husband’s limoncello “hobby” began.
So, now I’ve got limoncello, in all it’s various stages of production all over my house. With that said, I’m taking it upon myself to help my husband “unload” some of his work, convincing him that it’s all to help him make room for more!
I’ve been working on various recipes to use the limoncello in. This Limoncello Cake with Limoncello Glaze is the first of many, I assure you.
Why This Recipe Works
- This cake is ultra moist. The texture is quite like a pound cake, with just the right amount of sweetness.
- For the glaze, I combined limoncello and powdered sugar. And yes, the glaze certainly has a “punch” to it. If you want to make it “kid-friendly”, use lemon juice instead.
- It’s delicious for breakfast, dessert or a snack.
Ingredients Notes
See recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
- Eggs: Egg provides structure in cakes and 2 large eggs is all you need.
- Greek Yogurt: Use plain greek yogurt. If you don’t have greek yogurt, sour cream is a good substitute.
- Butter: Use melted butter.
- Limoncello: Limoncello is a smooth, sweet lemon liquor that can be purchased in liquor stores. If you’d like to make your own, you might like to try my husbands limoncello recipe, it’s amazing!
- Sugar, vanilla, and salt: For excellent flavor.
- Lemon zest: For incredible lemon flavor!
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour.
- Baking powder and baking soda: These ingredients help the cake rise.
- Powdered sugar: Used for the limoncello glaze.
You can control the limoncello flavor and the thickness of the glaze – use more/less limoncello and more/less powdered sugar. Make the glaze as thick or as thin as you’d like. If you don’t want to make a glaze, keep the cake plain.
How To Make This Recipe
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, butter, limoncello, vanilla and lemon zest.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time, stirring constantly just until incorporated. Don’t overmix.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center is clean and the top of the cake is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar and the limoncello, or lemon juice, in a bowl until smooth.
- Remove cake from the pan by inverting the pan. Turn the cake over and drizzle the glaze over the cake.
Expert Tips
- Be sure to use real butter, not margarine in this limoncello cake recipe.
- If you want to make it “kid-friendly”, use lemon juice instead.
- Feel free to make the glaze thicker by adding more powdered sugar or thinner by adding more limoncello or lemon juice.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, you don’t have to use limoncello in this recipe. You can leave out the limoncello out altogether or you can substitute with lemon juice.
I baked it in a bread loaf pan, but even a small cake pan (8×8 size) would be a perfect size for baking.
You may refrigerate the cake overnight, or up to 3 days, covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container. You can also leave your cake at room temperature for 2 days in an airtight container.
Ways To Use Leftover Ingredients
If you have any ingredients leftover from this limoncello cake recipe, you might like to consider adding them to any of these single serving and small batch recipes:
- Greek yogurt: Fruit Quesadilla, Saag Paneer
- Limoncello: Grilled Pound Cake, Tres Leches Cake
- Lemon zest: Lemon Poppy Seed Scones, Blueberry Pie
Enjoy!
Moist Limoncello Cake with Limoncello Glaze
Ingredients
LIMONCELLO CAKE
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup butter , melted
- 4 Tablespoons Limoncello (or use lemon juice if you prefer)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
LIMONCELLO GLAZE
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoon Limoncello or Lemon Juice (to achieve desired consistency adjust as necessary)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Butter a loaf pan or 8×8 baking pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, butter, limoncello, vanilla and lemon zest. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time, stirring constantly just until incorporated. Don't overmix.
- Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center is clean and the top of the cake is golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar and the limoncello or lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.
- Remove the cake from the pan by inverting the pan. Turn the cake over and drizzle the glaze over the cake.
Joanie could I please have your husband homemade recipe for Lemmoncello?
Hi Gale,
Sorry for the delayed response. Here is my husband’s limoncello recipe – https://zagleft.com/my-limoncello-journey/
Enjoy!
I made a cream cheese frosting for my cake adding the limoncello and powdered sugar. It is to die for! I also made my quick mini cake from the 3-2-1 cake mix with lemon juice added. When it was done, I then poked holes in the cake and poured 1 shot of the limeonchello over the cake letting it run into the holes. Then I added the lemon cream cheese frosting.
I just found out the recipe and since I have limoncello from store at home- I’d like to try this one buuut… I’m also new on these things…you know baking etc- so it’s kinda hard for me to find greek yogurt in my area (Jakarta, Indonesia)- is there any other ingredient I can use to substitute the yogurt? or I can just use any plain yogurt? is sour cream ok? thanks 🙂
Hi Eka,
Yes, sour cream is a good substitute and use the same amount as you would for the greek yogurt.
I made cupcakes instead of a loaf or square cake.
I didn’t have plain yogurt, so I used some vanilla, and the top part of a fruit-on-the-bottom blueberry greek yogurt I had in the fridge… (Improvisation is the mother of invention!) I bought plain greek yogurt for my NEXT batch, since these are almost gone.
I used limoncello in the cupcakes and lemon juice in the glaze. (I had the lemon with the rind all gone, so I needed to juice it anyway…)
Delish!!
p.s. I have blood oranges in the house… I’m wondering if maybe I’ll try the rind and juice in my next batch…
Linda, I agree – use what you’ve got to make it work – I can totally relate! I’m so glad you liked them. Although I’ve never tried this recipe with blood oranges, I bet it would taste great. Let me know how they turn out please. Thanks!
We made our first batch of limoncello a few months ago from a recipe using Everclear. It is good, but thing it can be better. Is there a chance of getting your recipe? My husband was diagnosed w kidney cancer 12 yrs ago and is at home most of the days by himself as I work. I had never seen him so excited while we got all the supplies, lemons, etc to make limoncello. He fixed the lemons, helped thru each straining. There is an awesome Italian restaurant in Tulsa w our daughter and her husband, where we had our first taste of lemoncello. They also serve lemoncello Martina’s and cake. We are so totally hooked.
I have found Limoncello fun to make and drink. I also look forward to making another batch. After making Limoncello for the past 2 years I have settled on a Limoncello recipe that we like. The recipe is tailored for 190 proof Everclear. If you use a Everclear with a lower alcohol content (some states regulate the alcohol content) let me know what proof you can get and I can post an modified recipe. Everyone’s tastes are different so keep experimenting until you get it right.
Once you have found the recipe you like then you can branch out and try other variations including lime, mint, greet walnut, coffee bean (crushed beans not ground) and anything else you would like to try. Experimenting is half the fun.
Slowing down and being creative makes life worth living.
If you like Italian drinks, I would highly recommend Sambuca. Sambuca is a liquorice flavored liqueur that is a great after dinner drink or something to sip at the end of a day. You can enjoy it while you make you next batch of Limoncello.
Enjoy.
I have tried this recipe and it is great, will your husband share his limoncello recipe? Thanks William