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!
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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:
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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!!
Made this on a gloomy fall evening — so bright and cheery! Thank you.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Clifford, and I’m glad this brought some cheer to the gloomy fall evening!
I’ve made this recipe countless times over the last few years and it’s always a huge hit! I follow the recipe exactly and it always turns out perfectly. I dare say it’s even better than Starbucks – the lemon flavour is perfect and it’s less greasy. Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Sabrin, and it’s great to hear you say you’ve made this recipe countless times over the years and it’s always a huge hit! And wonderful to hear you think it’s better than Starbucks, too!
Just want to say I have made this 3 times and is always fantastic. Today I was craving a plain vanilla loaf cake so I just omitted the lemon and added 2 tsp of vanilla extract as well as a package of instant vanilla pudding mix. I had to bake it about 65 minutes but it turned out great! Enjoying it now with some Bluebell Vanilla ice cream. Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
I’m glad this has become a favorite for you and you’ve been able to tweak it a bit to suit your cravings, too!
This was ok. It is more spongy than dense. I definitely wouldn’t compare it to Starbucks. Good flavor but the texture is off.
Thanks for trying the recipe and sharing your feedback. Most people absolutely adore it! It is dense, but definitely less oily than theirs and also has more lemon flavor compared to what the Starbucks version tastes like lately. 10 years ago it was stunning, meh, times have changed, at least the Starbucks in California!
Have made it at least 5 times since trying it. It’s perfect! My husband and I love it. Especially when I add some fresh blueberries to it.
I am so glad you and your husband both love it, Fay, and that you’ve made it 5+ times!
I made this today and it is lovely. I followed the loaf recipe with one exception; I combined the lemon zest and sugar and then proceeded as written. I halved the glaze and then only used half of what I made. Perfect crumb and density in my opinion, not too sweet, not to “fudgy” as some recipes seem to come out.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Maria, and I am glad to hear this was lovely, not too sweet, and a great crumb texture and density for you, and not too fudgy (dense), yes I know exactly what you mean!
For that texture, I have https://www.averiecooks.com/lemon-lemonies/ which are like lemon brownies, dense and rich and wonderful, but very different texture than the loaf.
I am highly lactose intolerant, so I used non-dairy unsweetened coconut yogurt by So Delicious instead of sour cream or Greek yogurt as noted in your Lemon loaf recipe. It came out of the oven looking and tasting so good. I made two – one to eat right away and the other I wrapped in parchment paper and then heavy-duty foil to freeze. One I made with King Arthur all-purpose flour and the 2nd one with Great Value (GV) all-purpose flour. The GV rose higher than King Arthur. Not sure if it was the flour or that maybe I whisked to much.
I am highly lactose intolerant, so I used non-dairy unsweetened coconut yogurt by So Delicious instead of sour cream or Greek yogurt as noted in your Lemon loaf recipe. It came out of the oven looking and tasting so good. I made two – one to eat right away and the other I wrapped in parchment paper and then heavy-duty foil to freeze. One I made with King Arthur all-purpose flour and the 2nd one with Great Value (GV) all-purpose flour. The GV rose higher than King Arthur. Not sure if it was the flour or that maybe I whisked to much.
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad that the So Delicious coconut yogurt worked well. In general, I find that brand to be great! That is interesting about the KA flour and the GV brand. That the GV rose higher (I would have guessed the opposite since KA tends to have more gluten in it which will cause things made with it to rise a bit more) but as you said, perhaps you worked the batter more.
Just wondering if I can substitute the oil with butter? Excited to try this recipe just not comfortable using those oils :)
I would make it exactly like I wrote it since I tried for years and years to perfect this loaf so I would not change a thing. Use another cooking oil of your choice but oil and butter are different in baking in terms of the results.
Easy cake to make that made a huge impact on our dinner party!
Even without the lemon extract [seems we ran out and I didn’t realize], and me adding in 2 TB of lemon zest to the cake batter and 2 TB of zest to the icing it was a hit. Lemon flavour came through with a bang.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Eliz, and glad that you were able to make it work with lemon zest in the batter and the icing and that the lemon flavor really came through and this was a dinner party hit!
This recipe truly Is phenomenal! I was debating whether to do this recipe or another one, and I’m so glad I chose this one, it really is better than Starbucks or any other lemon loaf. My (hard to please) husband even gave this a ten out of ten!
Note: I somehow forgot to get a lemon to zest for this recipe, so I added an extra tablespoon of lemon extract to the batter, tasting the batter as I went, and even with the adjustment it was great. So moist & bursting with lemon flavor, this is the perfect summer dessert. Thank you!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Mak, and I am glad you chose my recipe too and that it was truly phenomenal and that even your trick-to-please husband gave it a 10 out of 10, that’s so great!
Is it possible to add blueberries to this, and if so, would anything else need to be adjusted? I know that you have a blueberry lemon pound cake, but I’ve made this one already several times – people love it, and I wanted to see if I could make it even more summery and keep it loaf-shaped.
Yes that would be just fine. I would add about 1 heaping cup of fresh blueberries (toss them in a tablespoon or two of flour first) and stir to incorporate them at the very end. I wouldn’t make any other changes.
If you want summery + blueberry bread, these 2 are fan favorites!
This one is a home run!
Tastes just like, if not better then Starbucks!
It’s a perfect, summer treat with iced or hot tea.
You get the added bonus of knowing exactly what ingredients are being used. Look at food labels nowadays. It’s a dizzying list of unpronounceable words.
Thanks for preserving to get this perfected!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad this is a home run and better than Starbucks for you!
Hey I’d love to try this :) do you have the recipe in metric by chance? I feel like everyone does conversions differently so I want to make it as accurate as possible to yours, thank you!
I am sorry I do not use the metric system and don’t have the conversions. I do agree that everyone converts a bit differently.
This is a trusted baking company/brand https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart and while I don’t actually convert things, if I were to, this is where I would go to do it because they are such a reputable company.
So easy to put together. My entire house smells like lemon yum! Wonderful cake and will make this again.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Brenda, and I am glad this was wonderful and you’ll make it again!
Excellent recipe, spot on. Thank you for the easy instructions. Absolutely delicious. Recommend highly
Thanks for the 5 star review, Cindy, and I am glad it was excellent with easy instructions, delish, and highly recommended. What lovely praise – thank you!