Copycat Recipe: Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake

One of the privileges of assist a large academy was a 24/7 Starbucks inward the library. I frequented the java store non for Venti Americanos but for the Iced Lemon Pound Cake. Between classes, I’d indulge inward a piece of the tangy yellowish cake (well, until I read the nutrition facts)—and e'er since then, I’ve possessed a for sure nostalgia for the treat. 

Which is why, for the lastly year, my phone’s photograph album has included shroud shots of a recipe claiming to live a near-perfect replica of Starbucks’ Lemon Loaf (as it used to live called). Of course, I took this shroud shot when I was inward the midst of what I telephone phone the Couch Era, those weeks after Asa’s nascency when I barely left my living room. She was a infant who liked to live held equally ofttimes equally my college’s Starbucks was open, which meant I spent lots of fourth dimension surfing the web—and lots of fourth dimension imagining the desserts I’d someday bake, if I e'er had to a greater extent than than 10 minutes to myself again.

One twelvemonth later, that hateful solar daytime has (finally) come, if you lot tin count cooking amongst a one-year-old wrapped merely about your leg equally “me” time—and my filed-away recipes are existence position to the test. 

This 1 didn’t disappoint. 

Although my loaf pan isn’t nearly equally deep equally the 1 Starbucks must use—my cake ended upwards solely most one-half the size of the original—the gustatory modality was to a greater extent than than convincing. The secret, I believe, isn’t inward the cake itself—it’s the dash of lemon extract inward the powdered sugar-based icing, giving it merely plenty zing to play a joke on your tastebuds into coming dorsum again…and again…and again. (I’m to the phase where I’m merely skimming off the transcend one-half of the cake, hence I tin ensure I savor a chip of icing amongst every bite.) 

I volition acknowledge the texture is a chip unlike than the original. The copycat recipe yields a light, fluffy cake, much similar a traditional box cake, whereas the Lemon Loaf of my retentiveness was denser (perhaps the argue Starbucks changed its cite to pound cake). That existence said, I get got heard that Sweet Streets, the bakery that Starbucks supposedly buys from, makes its desserts, like, a twelvemonth inward advance, hence freezes them, which could explicate the textural difference. I’ll get got freshness over density. 

In 2014, inward a tragic plough of events, Starbucks discontinued the dessert, but after my lemon-loving brethren protested, the fellowship brought it back. So if you've never tried it, become it spell you lot can, inward illustration Starbucks tries to tin the cake again. Or merely brand this recipe, courtesy of Food.com...

What you lot need:

1.5 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 loving cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract (hint: it's sold at Aldi for $1.99!)
1/3 loving cup lemon juice
1/2 loving cup oil

For the icing
1 loving cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Put it all together:

1. Using a mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla, lemon extract, in addition to lemon juice, hence add together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, in addition to salt. Pour inward the oil, in addition to mix until thoroughly incorporated. 
2. Pour the batter into a greased 9x5" loaf pan, in addition to bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the centre comes out clean.
3. While the cake is cooling, combine all the icing ingredients. When the cake is cool, withdraw it from the pan, in addition to drizzle the icing over the top. Let the icing harden earlier serving.