Anything with lemons is my jam!  I love the refreshing taste and if I have to admit it, there is something about sour things that makes me happy.  This Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Icing makes me is amazing and tastes a lot like the Lemon Pound Cake from Starbucks.  It is dense and delicious with sour cream and buttermilk added to the dough.  Then it’s topped with a lemon icing.

Anyone else a Starbucks junky like me?  This is my favorite treat to purchase when waiting for a pink drink.  Never had a pink drink?  You need to order one with light coconut milk and 5 shots of raspberry syrup!  Then add a little Lemon Pound Cake and you a have a party for one! If you want to share your Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Icing, this is the best recipe.

How to Make Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Icing

1. Infuse the sugar with lemon zest.  Use a whole lemon and zest the skin.  You can use a box grater, but I suggest using a microplane.  These are amazing tools that help you zest any kind of fruit.  It will grate just the outside skin and leave the white pithy part still on the fruit.

Once you have grated the lemon and collected the fragrant zest, put it in a bowl and cover it with the sugar.   Use your fingers to smash the zest into the sugar.  This is an important step to get all the flavor out of the zest.  Keep smushing the zest in the sugar until all the zest is covered in sugar crystals. Set this aside for 5 minutes so the lemon oils can really get mixed into the sugar.

2.  Place the dry ingredients in a bowl.  This helps you to be ready when you need to add it to the butter and sugar part of the batter. The dry ingredients need to be added a little at a time with a little buttermilk added after each addition of dry ingredients.

3.  Melt the butter and add it to a large bowl.  Add the oil to the melted butter and mix well.  Then add the lemon infused sugar and beat for 3-4 minutes until light and pale in color.

Smashing the lemon zest into the sugar is the secret.

4.  Add the lemon juice and sour cream.  Mix well and then add the eggs one at a time.

5.  Add the dry ingredients and then add a little buttermilk.  Keep adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk alternatively until everything is well incorporated.

6.  Preheat the oven to 350°.  Grease one loaf pan with vegetable spray and then line it with parchment paper.  Lay the parchment paper on a counter and use the loaf pan as a guide.  Using a pencil make a line along the side of the pan.  

Use a ruler to continue the line down the sheet of parchment paper.  Cut and place inside the the loaf pan.  Cut another sheet of parchment for the other direction of the pan.  Placing two sheets of parchment inside the pan. Spray the pan with vegetable spray either before you put the parchment paper in or after. It doesn’t matter, but you still need it.

Lining a loaf pan with parchment paper makes taking the bread out a breeze.

7.   Pour the batter inside the greased loaf pan.  The batter is thick.  Place the pan in the oven and back for nearly an hour.  If the loaf starts turning too dark, take a piece of tin foil and lay it over the top of the bread.  It will keep the top from getting too dark while the inside continues to bake.

8.  Place all the ingredients for the Lemon Icing in a bowl and mix until smooth with no lumps in it.  The thing I love about this icing is, of course, the fresh lemon juice.   The melted butter adds a rich flavor to the icing and gives it a thick consistency which makes those lovely drips on the side of the bread. If you want a thinner icing, don’t but the butter in it and use milk instead of whipping cream.

9.  Once the bread is done baking, set it on a cooling rack and set the timer for 10 minutes.  Letting the bread cool for 10 minutes helps the bread set up so it will keep it’s shape.  Take the bread out of the pan and then pull the parchment off.  While the bread is still warm, spoon the lemon icing over the top.

Cover a cookie sheet with tin foil or plastic wrap.  Place a cooling rack inside the cookie sheet and then put the warm bread on it.  This allows the Lemon Icing to drip off the bread onto the cookie sheet, leaving those beautiful drips.

Place cooked bread on a cooling rack to let the icing drip off the sides.

Putting the icing in a plastic bag is the easiest way for me to get it on the bread.  Cut a small corner off and go back and forth across the top of the bread drizzling over the edge for a second and then going back.  This gives you the perfect amount of drip on both sides. If you like thinner icing, don’t add the melted butter and use milk instead of whipping cream.

10.  Waiting to eat the bread after it has cooled, is my favorite.  Good luck waiting!  It is hard because everything smells so good.

Let me know on Instagram or Facebook if you make this.  Post a picture and tag me @dinasdiner.

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