The Best Lemon Loaf (Better-Than-Starbucks Copycat) — It took years, but I finally recreated it!! Easy, no mixer, no cake mix, dangerously good, and SPOT ON!! You’re going to love this lemon bread recipe!
Table of Contents
Copycat Starbucks Lemon Loaf Recipe
This iced lemon loaf cake recipe has been beyond a long time in the making. I’ve been trying to make this copycat Starbucks lemon loaf on and off for years. I can’t even tell you how much I have obsessed, tried, trialed, and failed at it. Until now.
If you’ve ever had Starbucks’ Lemon Loaf, you know how good it is. Full of lemon flavor, moist, dense, and rich. Anything that good I shouldn’t want to learn how to make at home, but I couldn’t leave well enough alone.
I’ve tried countless internet recipes for lemon bread and some were ‘fine’ but not quite perfect, while others were total fails. And I definitely didn’t want to go the cake mix route.
I even sent one almost-a-possibility-but-not-quite to my mom to have her trial it.
Something as ‘simple’ as a lemon loaf cake eluded me for ages until I rediscovered and slightly adapted my own 2012 recipe for Blueberry Yogurt Cake with Lemon Vanilla Glaze. It’s an easy, no-mixer, one-bowl, whisk-together batter.
This lemon loaf cake is soft, springy, and moist without being heavy or dry, problems which often plague pound cake. Nor is it oily, which sometimes happens with the Starbucks’ version. Plus, you probably have all the ingredients on hand to make it and you can pronounce every ingredient used.
The lemon loaf cake itself is perfectly lemony, and the lemon glaze boosts the lemon flavor even more. Lemon lovers will be in their glory!
And just think of all that money you’ll save by making it at home. That’s almost dangerous.
Ingredients in Lemon Loaf
To make this copycat Starbucks lemon loaf recipe, you’ll need:
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Sour cream
- Canola oil
- Lemon zest
- Lemon extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
And to make the lemon bread glaze, you’ll need:
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Lemon juice
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Lemon Loaf
This Starbucks recipe for lemon loaf couldn’t be easier to make! Here’s a look at how this recipe comes together:
- First, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and sour cream before drizzling in the oil.
- Stir in the lemon zest and extract, followed by the dry ingredients.
- Turn the lemon loaf batter into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan and bake until the top is domed, set, and toothpick inserted in the center crack comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter.
- The copycat Starbucks lemon loaf needs to cool for at least 30 minutes before drizzling with the glaze!
Lemon Loaf FAQs
Yes, this lemon bread freezes incredibly well. It can be frozen up to 6 months.
Just be sure to glaze the bread AFTER it’s been frozen and thawed (the glaze can be frozen, but the texture changes slightly).
Of course, just note that your bake time will vary depending on the size of your pans.
One reader reported success making seven mini loaves and baking them at 350ºF for about 35 minutes, if that helps. However, I can’t speak from personal experience.
Most likely, yes. You’d need to bake two 9×5-inch loaves.
A few readers have also asked if they can double the recipe and bake the batter in a 9×13-inch pan or a metal bundt pan. Both options would likely work, although I can’t say for sure.
I don’t recommend doing so, as that would change the taste of the lemon bread too much. If you want a lemon olive oil dessert, make my Lemon Olive Oil Cake recipe instead.
I’ve had quite a few readers ask about using gluten-free flour in this copycat Starbucks lemon pound cake recipe. I’ve only made the recipe as written, but readers have reported success using either Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour or Cup4Cup gluten-free flour.
I can’t say for sure if using a gluten-free flour will work, but this is what readers have recommended!
No! Do NOT use lemon oil and lemon extract interchangeably because they’re not — oil is much more potent and intense.
No, do NOT use lemon juice in place of lemon extract because it’s not strong enough and the acidity can alter the overall results.
I used 2 tablespoons of lemon extract because no actual lemon juice is used in the loaf and I found 2 tablespoons lemon extract necessary for full-bodied lemon flavor, but you can add it to taste.
What Readers Are Saying
As you can see on the recipe card, this copycat Starbucks recipe for lemon loaf has over 1,500 reviews on it. And if you scroll to the very bottom of this post, you’ll see the 1,000+ comments that readers have left.
To say that this lemon bread recipe has been tried and tested — and loved! — is an understatement!
Here are just a few 5-star reviews that have been left on this lemon loaf cake recipe:
“Delightful! This loaf did not last long in my household – lemony and delicious and a recipe I always come back to.” — Stephanie
“I have been making this recipe for a few years! Always gets the best reviews! I poke holes in it so when I add the glaze it goes into the loaf! This is my go to recipe when I am asked to bring a dessert!” — Joan Kasaris
“Simple, yet delicious! Baked mine for 40 minutes. It’s a dense, flavourful cake and will be my go-to lemon loaf recipe from now on since I have too been looking for the perfect lemon loaf for a long time. Thanks for finding it for me!!!” — Vivi
“Hard to believe a recipe so quick and easy tastes so good. Passed some out to friends and they were amazed at texture and flavor. I followed the reciperight to the end.” — Roger Drenga
“This recipe is incredibly delicious, and this was also my very first time baking a lemon loaf. I’m so happy how it turned out, and everyone in our house loved it. Thank you!” — Danielle
Recipe Video
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The Best Lemon Loaf (Better-Than-Starbucks Copycat)
Ingredients
Lemon Loaf
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream or Greek yogurt
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 to 2 tablespoons lemon extract, to taste (not teaspoons)*
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
Lemon Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice, or as necessary for consistency
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
Make the Loaf:
- To a large bowl, add the eggs, sugar, sour cream, and whisk vigorously until smooth and combined.
- Drizzle in the oil while whisking to combine.
- Add the lemon zest, lemon extract, and whisk to combine. Note – I used 2 tablespoons of lemon extract because no actual lemon juice is used in the loaf and I found 2 tablespoons lemon extract necessary for full-bodied lemon flavor, but add to taste.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and stir until just combined, don’t overmix. Some lumps will be present and that’s okay, don’t try to stir them smooth.
- Turn the batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Bake for about 50 to 52 minutes, or until top is domed, set, and toothpick inserted in the center crack comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter. In the last 10 minutes of baking, tent pan with foil (loosely drape a sheet of foil over pan) to prevent excessive browning on the top and sides of bread before center cooks through.
- Allow loaf to cool in pan on top of a wire rack for at least 30 minutes (I cooled 4 hours) before turning out onto rack to cool completely before glazing.
Make the Lemon Glaze:
- To a small bowl, add the confectioner’s sugar and slowly drizzle in the lemon juice while whisking until smooth and combined. You may need to play with the sugar and lemon juice amounts a bit as necessary for desired consistency and flavor.
- Evenly drizzle glaze over bread before slicing and serving.
- Extra glaze can be spread on the cut surface of the bread like you’d spread butter on toast and it soaks right in making the bread even moister and more lemony. Or you can halve the glaze recipe if you’re not a glaze person.
Video
Notes
- *Don’t use lemon oil and lemon extract interchangeably because they’re not; oil is much more potent and intense. Don’t use lemon juice in place of lemon extract because it’s not strong enough and the acidity can alter the overall results.
- Bread will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months; I don’t recommend storing it in the fridge because it’ll dry out.
- Recipe adapted from my Blueberry Yogurt Cake with Lemon Vanilla Glaze.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Lemon Desserts:
Lemon Lemonies – Like brownies, but made with lemon and white chocolate! Dense, chewy, not cakey and packed with big, bold lemon flavor!
Lightened Up Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake — No BUTTER in this healthier cake with big juicy blueberries and refreshing lemon! It’s a keeper!
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting – Soft, fluffy, moist, very lemony cupcakes from scratch! Easy one-bowl, no-mixer recipe for cupcakes that taste like they’re from a bakery!
The Best Lemon Bars – Truly the best lemon bars I’ve ever had!
Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze – Almost more berries than cake in this soft, fluffy cake!
Soft and Chewy Lemon Cookies — Packed with big, bold lemon flavor for all you lemon lovers! They’re soft, chewy and not at all cakey!
Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lemon Glaze — An easy buttermilk cake with big lemon flavor!! Soft, fluffy, and foolproof if you like puckering up!!
Softbatch Glazed Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies — Big, bold lemon flavor packed into super soft cookies thanks to the cream cheese!! Tangy-sweet perfection! Lemon lovers are going to adore these easy cookies!!
Baked Lemon Donuts with Lemon Glaze — They taste like the Starbucks lemon loaf, but in donut (or mini muffin) form!! Easy, no mixer recipe with a tart-yet-sweet lemon glaze that’s PERFECT! Lemon lovers will adore them!!
This recipe was fabulous!! It’s disappeared in 24 hours. I use coconut oil for most of my baking now, and used it for this recipe. As usual, it gives a moist result and depth of flavor that I love. I, too was worried about the amount of lemon going in. 2 Tbslp of zest, yikes! The batter was quite bitter and I was worried as it went in the oven, but the final result was smooth and bright! I also read above someone had browned edges and bottom on theirs, and I wanted to add that I have a double layer of tin foil that I keep around my glass loaf pan and I just keep it and reuse it when I’m baking a dessert bread. Learned the trick yeas ago and it keeps these types of breads lighter on their edges. It adds about 5 minutes to baking times usually. Thanks for the recipe. I’ve tried two other copycats of the Starbucks bread and this is the best. I had the real thing recently and it tasted kind of fakey, chemically, somehow. I might even go as far as to say, the Starbucks version is the “not-quite-as-good” copycat of yours!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you just trusted the amount of lemon going into the batter (I had trialed this cake about 20 times…all fails! Til this one. And learned a few things in the process!)
With glass pans, lining with foil is a great little trick. My loaf pans are all metal (cheap, from the grocery store!!) but I always tent the top in the last few minutes of baking to prevent too much on-top browning.
Thanks for saying my recipe is the best copycat you’ve tried AND that the Starbucks version is the “not-quite-as-good” copycat of yours! That is SO nice to hear!!
Hi Averie,
firstly let me tell you that I, like many others who have posted here, have lemon running thru my veins.
Second, lemon extract is not something we normally see in recipes here in Oz. Is lemon extract Limoncello❓Because that I can do. I have a fresh batch right there on the bench just waiting to be bottled.
Anyway, I can’t wait to try this recipe.
Thankyou for your persistence.
Lemon extract is NOT Limoncello.
Think that it’s like vanilla extract, except it’s not extracted from the vanilla bean, and instead from the rind/peel of the lemon. It’s such an extremely common product in the US and in every grocery store but if you don’t have it, I would say…try to order it? In this recipe you could skip it BUT the flavor will be lacking since it’s a big component. In other recipes you could use lemon juice, etc. but in this recipe, NO….I’ve tried this cake like 10 times over the years and they all failed. So you need to order it I think.
I came across this recipe last week and have made it twice since! This is perfection. A new favorite and a recipe I will hold onto forever. Thank you for sharing! And you absolutely nailed it. :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you – so great that you’ve made it 2 or 3 times now in a week! Love that!!!
this looks amazing !
can i half the recipe? all the ingredients? its just me alone, so a big loaf will be too much! but i really am craving for it.
thank you
Please read over the Baking and Recipe FAQs https://www.averiecooks.com/faq for answers to the most common questions.
I promised a lemon cake to my brother-in-law and was looking for a great recipe. This looks just right. I have a question. I have never left a cake in the pan for 30 minutes before turning out. Doesn’t it stick? I have had other cakes get stuck so I always turn out as quickly as possible. I would hate to have to pry it out of the pan. Thanks.
Take it out as soon as you think it’s ready to be taken out. When I try to move or manipulate hot loaves of bread or anything baked in a loaf pan (different than a thinner cake baked in cake pans), they fall apart or don’t survive in-tact so I just let them sit there. I use Pam Floured Cooking Spray for Baking and have never in 6 years of blogging & writing cookbooks had 1 singular cake stick with it. Ever.
Made this today. The pix are what sold me. My bf loved it. Keeping the recipe for the future!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
I love all the tips you have given in the recipe about the specific types of lemon flavors to use. Thanks for all the research and time put into perfecting this recipe! This sounds so amazing! Pinning and sharing!
Thanks for noticing the tips and for pinning!
I am so excited to try this! I love the bread at starbucks, I will definetly update with out come :)
Another fabulous recipe! I made this a few days ag. I was a little nervous about 2 full tablespoons of lemon extract, but I did it. I should know by now that I can trust you…..I don’t think I’ve ever made a recipe from your site that I didn’t love completely. I tried a copycat lemon loaf recipe from another web site, and it wasn’t nearly as good. Thanks again!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that you trusted the 2 full tbsp of lemon extract! I always like hearing when my recipes top others that you’ve tried that are similar :)
And thanks for saying that you’ve made other recipes of mine and have loved them all!
mm this sounds delicious, thanks for sharing this..
Simon
Thank you for this recipe! This was absolutely delicious. Made this yesterday for dinner with friends and placed the rest in an airtight container.
I was worried about how it would turn out. First, I didn’t have enough sour cream so I made up the difference with vanilla yogurt, which may have sweetened it a little bit. Then, I missed the timer by two minutes and was worried that the cake felt slightly dry when I first removed it from the pan. But once sealed in container, it moistened back up to a divine fluffy texture. Oh my goodness, it is soo delicious the next day. (It’s killing my diet!!!)
I do have a question, how do I keep the loaf from developing the “tunnel” ridge across the top?
Regine
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And glad the sealed container trick worked! Sometimes you get lucky :)
Tunnel ridges are actually an amazing sign that everything has worked perfectly with the baking soda/powder/leavener ratios to the amount of flour to the amount of liquids, etc. In banana bread, it’s a must! And in most quickbreads, it’s a good sign – embrace it! Steam being created, the loaf rising, and all the things that happen when baking science and the stars all align is what creates it; you WANT that.
I baked this bread last week and it was great! None left! I only had 1+ tablespoons of lemon extract so I used fresh lemon juice for the other 1T (although I ended us using a total of 3T lemon juice, and used yogurt vs sour cream) and the cake/loaf turned out great. I’m sure it was a bit less lemony in flavor but I made up for it with a tart glaze. Win win recipe!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! None left is always a good sign :)
Oh, my goodness! I puffy heart Starbucks lemon loaf…I cannot wait to make this at home now. Kudos to you for staying at it and working out this recipe. Love that it ended up being a recipe of yours that you could tweak. Pinned for sure!
Thanks for pinning and I know you’ve probably had ‘that’ recipe; the one that nags you until you crack the code…we’ve all been there! With all your gorgeous cakes and cupcakes, no doubt you’ve had a few doosies over the years :)
I made this and the taste was wonderful (my family loved it) but I did have one small issue…the sides and bottom of the loaf was over done (very brown) and the cake was very well done. At the 40 minute mark where it says to cover with foil, I put a knife in and all but the tip came out clean (the tip still had batter) and the top was browning. I’m hoping to remake it but does anyone have any suggestions as to cook time or reducing the oven temp?
Sounds like your oven just runs hotter and faster than mine. If it was already browned and with a clean knife at 40 mins, sounds like it was done, ready to come out. Always watch YOUR item and not the clock when evaluating doneness because all pans, climates, ovens, etc vary. Thanks for trying the recipe and just bake it less and you’ll be set!
Do you think this would also work using orange extract to make an orange loaf? I love both lemon and orange, and since it is orange season….
Possibly but I don’t think you’ll get that intense pop of flavor with orange that you will with lemon. I mean the recipe itself will ‘work’, but it will just come down to taste preference.
I love all things lemon, this loaf is perfection!