This Iced Lemon Pound Cake Recipe was inspired by Starbucks’ famous lemon pound cake! If you love that pound cake, you’ll absolutely love this fresh lemon loaf!
Iced Lemon Pound Cake Recipe
A couple weeks ago I stopped in a Starbucks to get a yogurt parfait and saw the famous Starbucks iced lemon pound cake in the case I just had to have. After one bite, I knew I wanted to re-create my own recipe for it.
Let’s just say I did it! Well, I am sure it’s not their recipe, but boy does it taste just like it 🙂 My boys went nuts over this cake and my oldest has requested it for his birthday cake, lol!
It’s that good people and shhhh, don’t tell but I start the recipe from a cake mix. Trust me, no one will ever know. Happy baking!!
Here’s your simple line up of ingredients.
How to Make Iced Lemon Pound Cake
In no particular order, add all of your cake ingredients to the mixer.
Add your lemon pudding and milk.
4 beautiful large eggs.
Your oil and sour cream.
Freshly squeezed lemon juice 🙂 Mmmm!
Once mixed nicely, divide the batter between your loaf pans (9×5).
How gorgeous is this?! Wait until you taste it.
While the cakes are cooling, prepare the tangy icing.
Drizzle, drizzle and drizzle!
I am speechless. Lol!
Iced Lemon Pound Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
Pound Cake
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 4.3 oz cook and serve Lemon Or 3.4 ounce instant Lemon pudding mix
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 8 oz sour cream
- 6 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
Icing
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
Pound Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray 2 loaf pans (9x5)generously with cooking spray.
- Place all cake ingredients in no particular order into stand or electric mixer, beating until well combined, about 1 1/2 minutes.
- Divide cake batter between two prepared 9x5 loaf pansspreading evenly. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove and let cool for 15 minutes before removing loaves from pans.
Icing
- Place powdered sugar into a large bowl. Drizzle in lemon juice stirring until smooth and thick. Should be a good drizzling consistency.
- Drizzle icing over cakes after they are completely cooled, and let set for 20 minutes for a firm icing. Otherwise slice while still wet if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
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Have a great day! Come back soon 🙂
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Welcome to my online kitchen! Picky Palate is where you’ll find family friendly recipes along with the best Disney eats, tips and copycat recipes! 
Some of the comments should tone down their cattiness btw :P!
I followed the instructions exactly and it turned out AMAZING! Mm, it’s scrumptious. I’m so happy to make such a HUGE batch over a single slice from Starbucks which costs around $2.50! I don’t usually have yellow cake mix and lemon pudding on hand, (but I do always have the other ingredients) so if I just buy those two things, this recipe is just about the same cost as a SB slice!
I love recipes that say “pour into a loaf pan”, as if there were only one size loaf pan.
Hi, I’m wondering which size loaf pan will work best for this recipe or if any size will do?
I have always been a fan of Starbuck’s Lemon Loaf. Tried this for an Easter cake.It smelled so good we had a piece early. Yum! It was so moist and flavorful. Better than Starbucks. Definitely keeping this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Hi! First, I love your blog 🙂
Second, I saw this question A LOT in the comments, and I just wanted to clarify before I made the Lemon Pound Cake for Easter this weekend. I have been searching online for 4.3oz of the Lemon Pudding (Cook & Serve) and you can only seem to buy it from Amazon.com (but you have to buy like 24 packs of it…) Would it make sense just to buy 2 of the 3.4oz sizes and measure it out to be 4.3oz? Or would JUST the 3.4oz work? Thanks for your help! 🙂
Great recipie! I added 1 1/4 c blueberries, as well as 1/4 c pudding mix & milk in the icing. It was a hit!
I too had a problem with not only the loaves falling but it didn’t rise either. I baked it longer but with no success, I am wondering about omitting one of the eggs? I am going to try and make this again because I just love the lemon bread at Starbucks! Any help would be appreciated, thanks. 🙂
Karen, did you end up trying this again with or without success?
Hello, I just dropped by to read this blog.
It looks really cool and I liked viewing it, thanks for the great writing!
Can you make this as on tube cake?
I think this would work just fine in a bundt/tube pan.
I made it in a bundt pan. Adjusted cook time to 40-45 min. Worked fine
Hey Jenny,
Love the copycat Starbucks Lemon Pound Cake but have a question.
I followed the recipe to the letter and when I pulled my loaves out they were beautiful!! Nice and high, beautiful color…came back 5 minutes later to check on them and they had sunk!!! Well they flattened out…why? I can’t figure it out! They taste great! Moist, nice lemon flavor, just not high and beautiful like when I took them out of the oven. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Melinda
Hi Melinda, that means they weren’t cooked long enough. I did that one time and realized that I needed to bake them longer. The next time I baked them I let them bake 10 or so minutes longer and there was no sinking 🙂
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again.
Anyways, just wanted to say superb blog!
I just made this. It came out of the oven looking gorgeous, no crumbs on the toothpick after 55 min cooking. when I went to take it out of the pan it was as flat as a pancake. I’m an experienced baker and followed everything to the letter. Any ideas?
I’m just seeing the above comment. yes I used the 3.4 ounce, there were no other sizes. Disappointing.
The first time I made this lemon loaf, it sunk in the middle right after I took it out of the oven. I had used the 3.4oz box of pudding, which I assume many other people have also done since they couldn’t find the 4.3oz box. Cakes can sink for a variety of reasons, but one of them occurs when there is too much liquid. I just made this recipe again last night (because I loved the taste of it the first time), and I ended up finding the 4.3oz box of pudding mix at our Fareway grocery store. You’ll need to shop around because using the correct size box is crucial! The lemon loaves did not sink this time! Do not try to make this with the smaller size box of pudding mix. You need that extra powder to thicken up the batter and prevent it from sinking.
I just made this using Meyer lemons from our trees and the cakes were delicious. Love how moist and flavorful the cake was! Thank you!!
I used the Jello cook and serve lemon 4.3oz and it turned out beautifully.
I am in love with the Iced Lemon Pound Cake from Starbucks and am definitely going to try this recipe!
Jenny – made this yhe first time with no problem. Everyone loved it! The second time I made it both loaves cratered after cooling. I see your note above about it probably being undercooked. However, I am also wondering if the pudding size and/or the cake mix size is impacting the recipe. Many of the notes above mention confusion about the pudding size. Your recipe states 4.3 oz. The instant lemon comes in 3.4 oz and the cook and serve comes in 2.9 oz boxes. Is the 4.3 oz correct? I read you every day and appreciate you sharing all of your recipes – checking in on your blog is a daily highlight!
Better use instant pudding mix. I used non-instant and the texture was ‘puddenie’, not dense cake texture.
I have made this receipt about 5 times and it is as good or better than Starbucks lemon pound cake. A couple of observations.
1- only use the instant pudding mix.
2-Be sure to mix the ingredients for 2 plus minutes I use 2 an medium speed and 1 at low speed to finish it off.
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe.
Did anyone actually make this? Everyone said it looks good but I didn’t see how anyone made it. I made it twice, the first time substituting applesauce for half the oil and the second time exactly how the recipe says (using instant pudding). Both were DISASTERS. … :(. He first was like gel candy inside and the second fell as soon as I took them out and were too moist. I think there is a typo in the recipe. 1/2 cup oil and 1 cup of sour cream??? Seems like too much. 🙁 🙁 Happy New Year.
Hello! I searched the jello aisle and could only find 3.4 oz or much larger. Did you perhaps mean the 3.4 oz box instead of typing 4.3? I am making this recipe right now and have added enough pudding mix to equal 4.3 but I’m just wondering! I’ll get back to you after I’ve baked it. My husband can’t wait until it’s done!
– Dawn Sante
I’ve made this recipe twice now. The loaves come out of the oven looking absolutely beautiful, just like your picture. However, as they cool, the tops cave in. Any idea what’s going on? The toothpick comes out clean, so they are not under cooked. I’m at a loss. The flavor is fantastic, but the loaves look awful. Can’t give as gifts. Help!
My husband and co-workers love this cake! They keep asking me to make it. Thank you!
I would really like to try out this delicious recipe! But does putting in all of the cake ingredients mean just the cake mix or everything else??
This was very tasty, but definitely not like Starbucks.
Starbucks lemon pound cake is more dense and buttery.
This tastes like a regular cake with lemon flavor.
I see several questions concerning the amount of lemon pudding in the Starbucks lemon pound cake. You specify 4.3 oz package which I simply can’t find. I can use several small packages, but want to be certain this was not a typo. I checked several brands, no 4.3 oz size.
This was delicious, but only made one loaf. Maybe this is a rookie mistake, but I dot bake a lot and the butter needs to be a bit more than softened!
I just made this, followed directions exactly and it is DELICIOUS!!!! lemony goodness thanks for the easy recipe
My son loves the Starbucks cake so we made your recipe for my 35th birthday and it was a total hit. Thank you!
I have to try this! Especially love the jamies in the reflection. Being comfy while you cook is essential. 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
I made this cake over the weekend. It was delicious!! Mine fell a little bit, but it was still amazing. I know Jenny had said if the cakes fall then they needed to be baked longer, but I don’t feel as though mine should have baked longer. It had already been 55 minutes and a toothpick came out clean.
The icing really topped it off. We still have 1 loaf frozen…waiting to be eaten!
One complaint…I wish this were more like pound cake. It had almost a sponge cake texture.
just searchibg this recipie!!! (:
This cake is AWESOME! OMG……..just made it and it is so moist and so wonderful! And easy to make! This is a must for all the Starbuck’s Lemon Loaf Lovers out there! Thank you for sharing this recipe! 🙂
I made this last week and it was amazing! Thanks for the recipe.
What am I doing wrong? I have made this twice. The first time, made with a gluten-free cake mix. Cakes deflated and were very dense, I chalked it up to the gluten-free mix issue. Now I just made it with regular mix, and had same exact problem. I am usually pretty successful at baking, so this is disappointing. I definately want to succeed with this recipe. Any ideas?
My husband begged me to make a lemon pound cake similar to Starbucks. I came across your recipe today and had to try it. The consistency of the batter is heavenly, rich and thick… I have these in the oven right now and my kitchen smells awesome. 🙂 Thanks!