I have been asked to make a cake for a friend and she loves lemon pound cake. I have never make one before. It needs to feed 30 people. I have a few questions....

who has a good recipe?

will it go with a vanilla buttercream?

since it's dense, I should be able to stack it, right??

Thanks for your help!

Kate

Hi.  The recipe at onceuponachef website is good.  So is Ina Garten's on the food network website.  No, I would not recommend layering a lemon pound cake.  If you want it to look nice, use a good bundt pan and make sure you butter and flour the pan well, tapping out the excess flour, so the cake doesn't stick.  If you use both a glaze and a syrup and put a little lemon zest and slivered almonds on top, you can get a professional look.   To tantalize the taste buds you could even use a limoncello syrup to give it a little extra kick.  Also, I'm not sure what your baking skills are, but if you are a novice, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature.  Make sure you use the scoop and level method for measuring flour.  Make sure you cream your butter and sugar well before adding other ingredients.  Be sure to pull it out of the oven as soon as a cake tester or round toothpick comes out clean or almost clean.  If using dark, non-stick pan, don't bake at higher than 325 degrees. 

Martha Stewart has a orange flavored French wedding pound cake recipe.  Just sub out orange zest for lemon.  

I usually infuse my sugar with citrus zest a couple hours before mixing batter.  Just rub the zest into the sugar with fingers to release the oils.

But I think lemon simple syrup is key for best lemon flavor. I brush with lemon simple syrup while cake is warm, then rest overnight. Next morning I brush again with lemon simple syrup, Last summer my sister texted two days after I dropped of a box of mini lemon lavender pound cakes to say "OMG the flavor was amazing".  Never got that kind of response when I only added zest to batter.  I use 1:1 ratio of water to sugar.  Then add lemon juice to taste.