Copycat Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake (But Healthier)
Copycat 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 copycat Starbucks 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 Copycat Starbucks iced lemon pound cake I made, and you can easily make in your kitchen–it’s so much better! Honest! Why? Because it tastes like Starbucks’ pound cake 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 copycat Starbucks pound cake!
For another recipe, try this whole Meyer lemon bundt cake recipe which uses the rind and all. You can choose to glaze or ice it, too.
You won’t regret making this cake, I can almost guarantee it!
Copycat Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Simplifying Lemon Pound Cake serves 12
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 standard size loaf tin (about 5.5″ x 9.5″) and set aside.
Make the Batter for the Better Than Starbucks Iced Lemon Loaf
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: click the 5 stars in the recipe card if you think this copycat cake is way better than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake, thank you!!
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Way Better Than Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp lemon juice freshly squeezed (preferably Meyer lemon)
- 1 rind of a lemon (preferably organic Meyer lemon)
- 8 drop pure lemon oil
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 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.
Notes
- See my other lemon loaf recipe that's gluten free.
Nutrition
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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