Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Tons of bright fresh lemon flavor! The perfect balance of sweet and tangy.
Texture: Unapologetically buttery and moist with a thick, luscious glaze on top.
Ease: The batter comes together in minutes.
Pros: The most perfect spring treat.
Cons: None!
Would I make this again? Absolutely. Any lemon lovers will go crazy over each slice of this recipe.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Dare I say it: this Iced Lemon Pound Cake Loaf tastes even BETTER than the Starbucks Lemon Loaf recipe.
(And it’s certainly much cheaper!)
Right behind chocolate, lemon is one of my favorite flavors. Both in sweet or savory dishes!
Now that spring is upon us, I was craving something bright and sweet but still rich and satisfying.
I knew I wanted to tackle perfecting the lemon loaf. I envisioned something ultra moist and buttery and bursting with lemon flavor.
Many lemon recipes seem to lose the intensity of lemon flavor after baking, so I had to find a way to pack a strong lemon punch without using difficult to source ingredients into this lemon loaf cake!
The resulting lemon loaf recipe just below was heavily inspired by both Baked and Cooks Illustrated recipes. I tested batch after batch, tweaking and experimenting until I was obsessed with the final result! This Starbucks Copycat Lemon Loaf recipe turned out better than I could have imagined.
How to Make Lemon Pound Cake Loaf
What is Pound Cake?
Pound cake is traditionally made with a pound of each of the four main ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Despite the fact that this makes a traditional pound cake recipe easy to remember, it doesn’t always produce the best results. You’ll see my recipe below still uses a lot of butter and sugar, but the ratios vary slightly.
Ingredients You’ll Need for Moist Lemon Pound Cake:
- All-purpose flour
- Cake flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Granulated sugar
- Lemons – TONS of zest and 1 tbsp lemon juice, for maximum flavor
- Eggs
- Butter – the butter is melted instead of creamed!
- Sour Cream (or full-fat plain unsweetened yogurt)
Do I Have to Use Cake Flour?
This recipe uses half all-purpose flour and half cake flour for the best of both worlds. When using only all-purpose flour, the loaf has more of a muffin texture. When using only cake flour, the loaf is too delicate and crumbly.
While you can use only all-purpose flour, I’d highly recommend using real cake flour for the best results. Learn more about the science of cake flour (and why I don’t use DIY substitutes) here.
Why Does This Loaf Recipe Require a Blender or Food Processor?
Like all pound cakes, this is a high-ratio cake – meaning there’s as much or more sugar as there is flour. This provides a beautifully moist tight-crumbed texture without needing to cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer.
Instead, a blender or food processor not only assists in making quick and easy work of making this batter, but it also helps emulsify all the rich ingredients together into a smooth batter.
The last ingredient is the melted butter, which must be drizzled in a steady stream as the blender or food processor goes to perfectly emulsify.
Can I Use a Different Sized Pan?
This recipe uses a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan for best results.
To Bake in a 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch Pan
Add about 5 minutes to the baking time. This is the pan I use for smaller loaves. Loaves baked in this slightly smaller pan will rise higher and look taller, more like what you’d see in a bakery case.
If you use an even smaller pan, you may run the risk of the loaf overflowing, or collapsing slightly in the center – especially if you live at higher altitudes.
To Bake in a Bundt Cake Pan
Double all ingredients and bake in a well-greased 10 to 12 cup bundt pan and bake for about 50 to 60 minutes. OR, use my Lemon Bundt Cake recipe which is more light and cakey than this pound cake recipe.
To Bake in Glass or a Ceramic Pan
I tested this recipe in a metal pan because it conducts heat quickly and efficiently. Glass and ceramic are slower conductors of heat, so if you use this style pan you’ll need to decrease your baking temperature to 325°F and increase your baking time by about 10 minutes. Check out my article on Glass vs. Metal Pans.
The Trick to Bright Lemon Flavor in Pound Cake (even after baking)
Lemon flavor can dull during the baking process. That’s why this recipe calls for two whole tablespoons (not teaspoons!) of both lemon zest and juice. Then there’s a tablespoon of fresh juice in the glaze, which helps give a fresh punch of lemon flavor. You’ll need about 3 large lemons in total!
How to Make Lemon Glaze for Pound Cake
You’ll just need 3 ingredients for the lemon glaze: powdered sugar, a lemon, and milk or cream. Whisk together the glaze ingredients until thick but pourable. The consistency of your glaze will depend entirely on the brand of powdered sugar you’re using and how humid it is in your kitchen.
- To Make the Lemon Glaze Thinner: Add more lemon juice or milk, 1 teaspoon at a time.
- To Make the Lemon Glaze Thicker: Add more powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time.
How to Store Lemon Pound Cake Loaf
The glazed loaf can be covered in foil or plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Can I Freeze Lemon Pound Cake Loaf?
Yes! Wrap the unglazed loaf tightly in plastic wrap and store for 1 month. Your loaf will likely develop a moist or tacky surface on top, but the glaze should disguise it nicely.
More Scrumptious Lemon Desserts to Try:
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Lemon Cheesecake
- Glazed Lemon Cookies
- Lemon Bundt Cake
- Lemon Cupcakes
- Soft Batch Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies
Become a Baking Genius!
Sign up for our free email newsletter for NEW recipes & baking science secrets.
Lemon Loaf Pound Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (85 grams) cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest (from about 3 lemons)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (57 grams) sour cream or plain yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
For the glaze:
- 1 cup (125 grams) powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon milk or cream
Instructions
Make the loaf:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of a food processor or high-speed blender, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Pulse a few times to evenly distribute the zest. Add the lemon juice, eggs, and sour cream and pulse until combined. On low speed, gradually drizzle in the melted butter in a slow steady stream until well combined.
- Make a well in the dry ingredient mixture. Pour in the wet ingredients. Mix gently with a rubber spatula until just combined. Batter will be slightly thin.
- Pour mixture into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached, about 50 minutes if using a metal pan, or once an internal temperature of 200-205°F is reached. If using a glass or ceramic pan, decrease your baking temperature to 325°F and increase your baking time by about 10 minutes.
- Cool in pan for 15 to 20 minutes then run a thin flexible knife around the edges before inverting onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Make the glaze:
- In a small bowl, whisk together the glaze ingredients until thick but pourable. Add more juice or milk to thin out or more sugar to thicken until your desired consistency. Spoon over the loaf, letting it drip down the sides if desired. Let set for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Recipe Notes
June 2021 Baking Challenge
This recipe was the June 2021 pick for our monthly baking challenge! Every month you can join the challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s loaves:
Super easy and tasty! The icing was delicious and perfect consistency as well. I made it in a Williams-Sonoma gold 8 1/2x 4 1/2′ pan, increased the time by 5 minutes as instructed. The loaf was beautiful and I could have probably left it in for only 3-4 minutes extra.
Adding extra zest to the batter is key!
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Cheryl!
Doubled it, Bundt pan, no glaze. Left it on the counter with a note that said ‘lemon pound cake, help yourselves’ got home an hour later and there were 2 pieces left. 4 teenagers. By dinner it was totally gone. A+
Doubling it maxed out my cuisinart (leaking, dripping) so I sort of rapidly dumped that liquid portion into the dry, not realizing I hadn’t whisked. Pushed the whole thing through a sieve before baking to get rid of the lumps. Not sure if that is why it had such an amazing texture of if it would have otherwise, but worked great. Lost some zest but still super wonderfully lemony.
Oh wow, happy to hear it was such a hit! So glad what could have been a disaster still worked perfectly!
Hi! Do you have any tips for using a stand mixer for this recipe? I don’t have a food processor but I need this loaf cake in my life!!
Hi Callie 🙂 You’re welcome to use a mixer but just know the results won’t be exactly the same since a mixer doesn’t blend the ingredients together the same way. Please let us know what you think!
Delicious and so easy. I just need help with the loaves sticking in the tin! I made mini loaves with this recipe but they stuck fast in the tins
Hi Sue! So happy you enjoyed this recipe! You definitely want to grease your pans well. For next time, you could try greasing your pans, adding a layer of parchment paper, and then greasing the parchment paper. That way you’ll have something to grab onto when pulling the loaves out. Hope that helps!
Hello!! How many people could eat from this loaf
Typically a 9×5 loaf pan has 12 servings, but it all depends on how thin your slices are. Keep in mind people will be wanting seconds too 🙂
Hi, one more question – above you link the USA loaf pan but the linked one is 8.5×4.5 and you mention it needs to be 9×5 so I wanted to see if that specific 8.5×4.5 can be used?
It doesn’t look like my other question posted so I’m kids asking again – I’d like to make this the day before because I need to travel with it the next day, if I refrigerate it and keep it in a cooler bag for the drive can it stay fresh longer than the 2 days room temperature that you’ve mentioned?
Keeping it in a cooler should help! Be sure to keep your loaf covered with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. I didn’t realize you were attempting to travel with this loaf when I responded to your other question, but you could still freeze this loaf after making, and then let it thaw in the cooler bag during the drive. Just glaze when you get to your destination! Hope that helps 🙂
Yup, tried and tested 🙂 Enjoy your lemon loaf!
Hi, will it last a little longer than two days if it’s refrigerated once it cools down? I want to make it a day before it would be tried so I’m hoping it can stay fresh a little longer than the 2 days room temperature (even though all comments show it’s eaten within that time frame lol)
Mine hasn’t lasted longer than that either, so I can’t say for sure haha! I know reviewers have frozen this loaf in the past, then thawed in the fridge and glazed at that point if that helps!
This isn’t a 5 star recipe at all. IT’S A DAMN 10 STAR RECIPE
Woohoo!! I’m thrilled you loved it!
I am not really a fan of the Starbucks Lemon loaf even though I love lemon. That being said, this recipe is incredible! So fresh and lemony! I’ll definitely make this again!
Only way to describe this. F*CKING DELICIOUS
I’m not normally a fan of lemon pound cakes, or anything baked that has lemon, but I actually liked this recipe, my brother and mom loved it, my brother also said it has the perfect texture to be made into cake pops, which probably could’ve been a good idea.
I’m definitely intrigued on the cake pops! Or, loaf pops? haha! Let me know how that experiment goes if you ever try it out!
This cake was super moist and had the right amount of lemony flavor!