Way Better Than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake tastes fabulous, and has no chemicals, strange additives or preservatives. Why go to Starbucks and pay for a slice when you can make an entire loaf that’s much healthier for about the same price?
We rarely go to Starbucks, but when we do, my daughter loves to get a slice of their Iced Lemon Pound Cake.
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So as an after-school surprise, I thought I’d make her a homemade version, which she’d also be able to take to school in her lunch. I started my baking endeavor by looking at the ingredients in Starbucks’ own lemon cake. I must say, I was extremely disappointed after reading the list. Let’s just say we’ll be skipping the pound cake purchases in future— just take a look at this~
Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake Ingredients
Sugar, bleached enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin and folic acid), egg, unsalted butter (pasteurized cream), powdered sugar (sugar, cornstarch), water, lemon juice (lemon juice from concentrate (water, concentrated lemon juice), sodium benzoate, sodium metabisulfate and sodium sulfite (preservatives), lemon oil), vegetable shortening (palm and canola oil), emulsifier (propylene esters, mono-diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, tricalcium phosphate), nonfat milk, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate), food starch – modified, natural flavor, salt, icing base (dextrose, stearic acid, agar agar, salt, pectin, guar gum, sodium hexametaphosphate), corn syrup, natural butter flavor (maltodextrin, natural butter flavor, annatto and turmeric (for color)), vital wheat gluten, guar gum, xanthan gum, natural lemon oil, beta carotene wsp (maltodextrin, glucose syrup, gum arabic, vegetable oil, tocopherol, vitamin c, beta carotene pure, silicon dioxide), titanium dioxide, pan spray (soy lecithin, [contains one or more of the following: canola oil, palm oil, soybean oil, natural flavor, mineral oil])
I don’t know about you, but this just puts me right off. Can you imagine making this in your own kitchen? Even the icing, which could easily be made of sugar, water and lemon juice, has sodium hexametaphosphate in it. The FDA claims it is “generally recognized as safe”. Generally? Hmmm, no thanks. If I can’t make it in my kitchen, I’ll pass.
You will probably also enjoy this beautifully moist Sicilian Whole Orange Cake recipe, too.
Now let me tell you about the Iced Lemon Pound cake I made, and you can easily make in your kitchen: it’s “way better than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake”! Honest! Why? Because it tastes like Starbucks’ without all the junk ingredients, that’s why. I hope you enjoy it–my daughter did!
I also made a loaf for a Downton Abbey party for her and her friends and they LOVED the “Way Better Than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake”!
Way Better Than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Simplifying Lemon Pound Cake
Ingredients (compare to the list above!)
- 1 1/2 cups (7.5 oz) cake flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 cup (2 sticks) (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (8 oz) sugar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice, preferably Meyer lemon
- zest of one lemon, preferably organic Meyer lemon
- 8 to 10 drops of pure lemon oil
Icing
- 1 cup (4.25 oz) confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
- about 3 tsp. lemon juice and water to make a runny glaze
Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC) and butter and flour a loaf tin/pan and set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
Cream room temperature butter and sugar in mixer, scraping down the sides once or twice.
Add one egg, and mix well, then add about 2 tbsp of flour until blended. Continue with the rest of the eggs, and a little flour, scraping the sides of the bowl from time to time.
Now add the vanilla, lemon juice, lemon rind and lemon oil, and mix well.
Remove bowl from mixer and gently fold in the remaining flour with a spatula.
Place cake batter into prepared loaf pan and put into preheated oven for 15 minutes. Afterwards, lower the temperature to 325ºF (150ºC) and continue to bake for another 40 to 45 minutes, or until tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
My first cake fell in the center as it wasn’t finished baking when I checked it at 35 minutes, so you will just have to use trial and error to see how your oven bakes.
Let cool for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and place on rack to cool completely.
When cool, prepare the icing, if desired.
Just mix the confectioner’s sugar and lemon and water until smooth.
Spread or drizzle over cooled cake…
letting it drip down the sides.
Allow the icing to dry/set before cutting the cake with a serrated knife.
Oh, and one last thing: do let me know if you think this cake is way better than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake, okay?
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Way Better Than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (7.5 oz) cake flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 cup (2 sticks) (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (8 oz) sugar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice, preferably Meyer lemon
- rind of one lemon, preferably organic Meyer lemon
- 8 to 10 drops of pure lemon oil
- 1 cup (4.25 oz) confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
- about 3 tsp. lemon juice and water to make a runny glaze
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC) and butter and flour a loaf tin/pan and set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
- Cream room temperature butter and sugar in mixer, scraping down the sides once or twice.
- Add one egg, and mix well, then add about 2 tbsp of flour until blended. Continue with the rest of the eggs, and a little flour, scraping the sides of the bowl from time to time.
- Now add the vanilla, lemon juice, lemon rind and lemon oil, and mix well.
- Remove bowl from mixer and gently fold in the remaining flour with a spatula. Place cake batter into prepared loaf pan and put into preheated oven for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 325ºF (150ºC) and continue to bake for another 40 to 45 minutes, or until tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and place on rack to cool completely. When cool, prepare the icing, if desired.
- Just mix the confectioner’s sugar and lemon and water until smooth. Spread or drizzle over cooled cake, letting it drip down the sides.
- Allow the icing to dry/set before cutting the cake with a serrated knife.
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Would love to try this tonight but I only have salted butter. Would that make it taste way too salty? Otherwise, I have all the ingredients and can’t wait to try it!
Sorry, Barb! Hope it’s not too late, but use the salted butter if that’s all you have, just omit the salt. Enjoy!!
Hi Christina
The cake using your recipe is indeed way better than Starbucks ones! My husband loves it! Better than one recipe l tried years ago!
Thanks
Mi Mi
That’s lovely to hear, Mi Mi! Thanks so much for letting me know, I appreciate it very much! <3
I have just read your post (again) “A Post about Commenting” – and thought I’d share this post that I put on FB a little while ago:
Heads up folks! I have been making lemon cakes for longer than I’d like to admit, but this afternoon I pulled out of the oven two of the most amazing lemon pound cakes EVER! Here is my advice go, do not pause, do not say “I’ll do that later” go NOW to christinascucina.com and look for a recipe called “Way better than Starbucks Lemon Pound Cake” and have at it! I didn’t have (and couldn’t find) any lemon oil, so used pure lemon essence instead (Christina said that it would do in a pinch, but I am going to search harder for the oil – though I just don’t see how these cakes COULD be any better!) What a terrific recipe. I haven’t iced them yet, so no picture, maybe I’ll try to take one of the finished cakes.
I have now found lemon oil, and am looking forward to making these cakes again!
You are so kind, Lee! Thank you so much for letting everyone know how your cakes turned out, including me! I’m so happy to hear it and also glad that you found lemon oil.
Thank you so much for your lovely review and kind comments! I appreciate them very much! Christina
Lee for years we lived very much in a mennonite community. There was an independent grocer there that carried both peppermint oil and lemon oil. The big stores took over the town so are no longer available so had to do some real leg work to find those oils as I use them for a couple recipes. Micheals craft stores have the oils in one of their sections. There are two small files per package. Each vile is about 1 tsp of oil. I hope this helps if you have not located them yet.
Thanks for your advice, Bev!
You can find lemon oil in most health food stores or by ordering from a high quality oil company like doTerra or Young Living. Don’t forget to get a high quality food/medicinal grade oil, not one from the big box stores for diffusing. The purity is not the quality you need for ingesting. I can hardly wait to try this for a memorial service later this week. I bought my lemon oil because i want the cake good an lemony, not just the icing.
Goodness, I didn’t even think someone might try to use the diffusing oil! I’ll make a note on the recipe. Thanks, Jules. I think you’re going to love the cake. Sorry it’s for a sad occasion though :(
This looks amazing. I plan to double the recipe, and make two cakes, they will be perfect for our deliveries to the local police station, fire station and Marine recruiting office. I usually make cookies or mini cupcakes, so a slice of cake will be a very different treat for them! When strawberries are cheap I make chocolate dipped strawberries – you wouldn’t believe the reception those got! Yesterday when we went to the fire station an amazingly good-looking firefighter kid opened the door and said (to my delight) “Oh, it must be Thursday!” We always deliver on Thursdays. I will report back on the response from all concerned – I am expecting it to be ecstatic!
What a lovely thing to do, Lee!! I love it! Isn’t it funny how fire-fighters always seem to be gorgeous?! Is that a prerequisite or something?! Haha! Please do let me know what they think, but I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t like a lemon cake! :) Thanks for doing this, it’s really a kind and wonderful thing to do. CC
Christina, if only I had a slice of this next to my coffee right now. If only! Looks so delicious!
Too bad we’re not closer, I know!!
After reading your tutorial, recipe and looking at your pictures, I believe you. And theirs is pretty darn good! A “can’t wait to try” recipe!
Awesome! Let me know what you think!
My mouth is watering! This is one of my all time favorite treats from Starbucks. It may be dangerous to have this recipe at my fingertips!
It is difficult to eat just one slice, Luci! That I will say!
That looks so absolutely gorgeous! I love the lemon color inside the cake and I love how you have drizzled it. Can’t wait to try
Thank you so much, Veena!
This looks delicious! Your cake definitely looks way more appetizing than the long list of ingredients in the Starbucks one. I’m sure it tastes better too! I’ll be sure to try it next time I get a Starbucks sweets craving! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Alyssa! I know, right? Crazy list of ingredients!
I made this wonderful cake to go with my morning coffee. It really is fabulous; however, I will have to tweak the baking time as my cake fell. My family loved the lemon flavor — it really is better than Starbuck’s! Thank you, Christina, for sharing all your recipes with us fellow bakers!
Oh bummer that it fell, did you check it with a skewer or cake tester, Sue? Hopefully the next one will be perfect! :)
Hi Christina, I tried the recipe last night and it was amazing! I brought it to work and it was a huge hit! Everyone loved it and some even asked me for the recipe! Thank you for taking the time to share it. I will definately make this recipe again! Cheers from Toronto :)
That’s awesome, Amza! Thank you so much for coming back to let me know! I appreciate it more than you know! Say hi to Toronto for me (I go there quite often as I have lots of family there)! :) Thanks again! CC
Hi Christina. Is lemon rind the same as lemon zest? Great looking cake by the way. I hope mine comes out like that.
Yes! One and the same-zest is the correct term though! I’ll go fix it. Thank you! :)
Tried it and it was very tasty, Thank you for such a delicious recipe.
Wonderful! I’m actually making another loaf today, too! Thank you for letting me know! :)
Can I substitute coconut oil for the butter in the lemon pound cake?
Hi Adrienne, all I can say is that I haven’t tried it, so it may or may not work. If you’re willing to take a chance, let me know how it turns out, but sometimes substituting butter for oil just doesn’t work. Sorry I can’t be more helpful! :( CC
Thanks… Cannot wait to try this recipe. It would be helpful if you could add nutritional info on the page (especially calories). Just a constructive suggestion.
You’re welcome, Walt. Thanks for your suggestion, I may add that info at some point in the future, however I’m not much of a calorie counter and prefer to eat healthy, unprocessed food 98% of the time and (most) everything in moderation. :) Let me know how you like the cake! CC
hi, is the lemon oil, the same as lemon essential oil? Or could this be used?
Thx!
Hi Felicity, I do believe they are one and the same. Let me know how it turns out! Thanks, CC
Hi Christina,
I made the cake, with lemon essential oil. The EO, is therapeutic grade and safe for consumption. The cake turned out well, with i nice flavour. I do find the cake rather heavy and fatty, i’ll try to tweek the recipe, by halving the eggs and cutting down the butter. I hope to achieve a lighter cake.
Great, glad you liked the flavour, but I would advise using a completely different recipe as it sounds like you’re looking for a light sponge cake rather than a pound cake. A pound cake is exactly as it turned out for you and I’m afraid it may not turn out at all if you change the main ingredients significantly. Halving the eggs would actually even make it more heavy as more eggs=lighter results. I can point you to my recipe for Butterfly Cakes (just add the lemon oil) and instead of making cupcakes, just use a loaf tin or round pans and adjust the cooking time. Let me know what you try…thanks for letting me know. CC
Looks amazing Christina! Can’t wait to try your cake <3 Nettie
Thank you, Nettie! I hope you love it as much as I do! CC
No paleo but the photos are soooo GREAT! I would like to bite into the screen… seriously! Yum… outch… (hit my head on the screen)
Hi Christina! Do you have any of your recipe’s in a printable format i.e.., without all the photo’s (lovely as they are)
everything looks delicious!
Hi Louise! I just revised my blog about two weeks ago and will be adding a feature which will allow the recipe to be printed without the photos, very soon (I think this week)! So stay tuned! CC
This sounds super tasty Christina, and ingrédients are always on hand. Love the recipe.
I’m sure yours will look beautiful, Hadia, because everything you make is gorgeous! Let me know how you like it! CC
Yikes!! I lurve Starbucks lemon pound cake (sometimes it’s the only reason I go in there) but had NO idea about the long list of ingredients. I’ll have to try making yours instead – it looks super yummy!
I loved the starbucks lemon pound cake and wanted to try baking one at home. . When I came across this recipe the name itself caught my eye and I was shocked to see the ingredients used by bucks!
This on the other hand is a really really good and obviously much healthier recipe. Lovely results.
Thankyou for sharing :)
You are so wecome, Tanvi! I’m so glad you found the recipe. I too was shocked at the list of terrible ingredients. Happy baking! CC
Hi, Christina:
Just want to let you know that I have made a few times your recipe for
Lemon Poundcake.
It definitely is 100% times better than Starbucks, and my family just
loves it!!
Thank-you so much for being so generous with us in sharing your
delicious recipes.
I am anxious to try many of your other recipes!
They look equally fantastic,
Raquel Musgrave
Thank you, thank you, Raquel!! Your note makes me very happy! I’m so glad that you love the poundcake and are going to try more of the recipes on my blog!
You made my day! CC ;)
After finding lemon oil in Las Vegas at the grocery store came across recipe again. and going to make for fish friday at church. I have given up flour/sugar,so I won’t be able to taste, but i can’t wait to smell it cooking in my kitchen.
Oh that is so kind of you to make it when you can’t have it yourself, Lori! You’ll love the smell and I’m sure everyone else will appreciate you making the cake for them! CC
Can lemon extract be used rather than lemon oil (it’s what I have)?
Hi Byron, as with any substitution, yes, you can use the extract, but it will not taste the same as using the oil. I would recommend using the oil, but of course, in a pinch, the extract can be used. Enjoy!
the lemon oil what does it do ? is there a substitution for it.
have everything but that in my cabinet.
thank you.
Hi Lori, the lemon oil is what will give the cake the really “lemony” flavor. You could put A LOT of lemon zest in the cake instead, which is where the lemon oil is extracted from, but the flavor won’t be as evenly distributed thoughout the cake. If you really love lemon cake, I’d invest in a little bottle :) Good luck! CC
Thank you for the receipt, at this very moment I preheat the oven, so my daughter and I can have slice of it at tea time!
Julia
Oh, that makes me happy! Enjoy!! CC
I would definitely say WAY BETTER, that ingredient list is downright scary. Your cake looks amazing.
Isn’t it though? Why they have to use those ingredients is beyond me! Thanks, Suzanne!
Great job on cleaning up Starbuck’s act! Looks scrumptious.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot more cleaning up to do, Cathy. :( Thank you! CC
I knew that startbucks like every other fast food chain had a lot of rubbish in their food and coffee – but never did I imagine the list to be soo long! Look at the difference between their ingredient list and yours! Absolutely incredible! Your cake looks delicious, if I am every in the neighbourhood, watch out as I may stop by for a cup of coffee and a slice of that cake ;)
I felt the same…I was shocked at the amount of rubbish in it, and my daughter had been eating it! :( I would be very upset if you didn’t stop in if you were in the neighborhood, so make sure and let me know if you are! ;) CC
Mmmmm! I simply must make this the next time a tea bread is needed!
Definitely, Susan! Put it on your list-you won’t regret it! :) CC
I simply love coffee and a sweet. This looks perfect and delicious. Thanks for posting. Jude
Me too, Jude! Especially when the weather’s cooler…can’t wait! :) Thank YOU for stopping by and commenting! CC