Somewhere between a dessert and a quick bread, this lemon loaf cake mixes up quickly and gives you a nice moist loaf. But the really good part is the lemony sugar glaze that you pour on top while it’s still warm. So good. Often imitated, never duplicated, it’s one of my most popular recipes and still one of my very favorites.
Some of the best sourdough discard recipes are breakfast recipes, because sourdough bakers typically discard and feed their starter in the morning. And this lemon cake makes the perfect breakfast (or snack! or dessert!) that the whole family will love.
There’s no sour taste, just a bright lemon flavor and plenty of sweetness and tartness from the glaze.
Get a Free + Pretty PDF Recipe Book
Sourdough Sunday Newsletter
Every Sunday evening I’ll send you a sourdough recipe to make that week, straight from my kitchen to your inbox.
And as a thank you for signing up, I’ll send you this e-book with beautiful printable recipes right away. Simple!
You will not be added to any other email lists or my daily newsletter. But if you’re already on my newsletter, you’re welcome to join and receive both.
Table of Contents
Ingredients and Tools You’ll Need
I’ve included baking soda as an optional addition because some readers have reported their cake collapsing after baking. This is usually because your cake is underbaked! But if you want a lighter texture (more of a quick bread), you can add baking soda. I prefer this recipe with just baking powder, which gives more of a pound cake texture.
For the Cake:
- ½ cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1½ cups flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup sourdough starter discard can be used straight from the fridge
- ¾ cup milk
For the Glaze:
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Optional Addition:
- 1 teaspoon baking soda add this if you want a lighter cake or if yours has sunk before
You can double this recipe and make two loaves or one larger cake in a 13×9. If you’re looking for a frosted cake for a party, you might prefer this sourdough lemon sheet cake with buttercream frosting.
In the recipe card at the bottom of this post, you can click the 2x button and it will double the ingredients for you.
How to Make
This recipe is easy as can be.
Baking the Cake
Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 with the rack in center.
Prepare your pan with non stick cooking spray. I like to use a loaf pan so it feels acceptable to serve this lemon cake as a breakfast. But a square cake pan works very well too!
Combine the oil, sugar, and eggs, in a bowl with an electric mixer. It will just take a minute.
In a separate bowl, mix up the dry ingredients, including the baking soda if you’re using it. Add them to the sugar mixture ⅓ at a time. So add ⅓ of the dry ingredients, then stir in the milk. Add another third, stir in the sourdough starter. Add the last third and gently stir.
Finally, mix in the lemon juice and zest by hand. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The top will crack. If you’re using a square cake pan, it will be done in 40-50 minutes.
Set the cake, still in its pan, onto a cooling rack and let it cool for about 15 minutes.
Making the Glaze
While the cake is cooling, let’s mix up the glaze. It will all fit in just a small bowl.
Mix up ½ cup of powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons of lemon zest.
Pour it over the slightly cooled cake while it’s still in the pan. After a few more minutes, the glaze will cool and harden. At this point, remove the cake and let it finish cooling on a cooling rack.
When completely cool, slice and serve!
You can always double this recipe and freeze one. Make sure it is fully cooled before you freeze it. Make the lemon glaze after it’s defrosted.
Storage Instructions
Keep this cake at room temperature for up to 3 days – just wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container. The glaze actually helps keep it moist, so don’t skip it!
Freezing: This cake freezes beautifully for up to 3 months. Let it cool completely, wrap it well, and freeze WITHOUT the glaze. Add the glaze after thawing.
My favorite trick: Glaze and slice the whole cake, then wrap individual slices and freeze them. Perfect for grabbing one slice at a time for lunch boxes or quick snacks. They thaw in about 20 minutes on the counter.
Simple Swaps You Might like
- Make it blueberry lemon by folding in ¾ cup fresh or frozen blueberries
- Switch out the lemon for orange or lime (keep the amounts the same)
- Bake as muffins instead (bake about 20 minutes, makes 1 dozen)
Questions and Troubleshooting
Usually this means it’s slightly underbaked or your leavening agents aren’t fresh. Try adding a teaspoon of baking soda along with the powder for extra insurance.
A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, and the cake should spring back when lightly pressed.
This recipe gets deep golden brown before it’s actually done – trust your toothpick over the color. Underbaked cake will sink when you pull it out.
Nope, that’s totally normal and actually a good sign it’s properly baked. The glaze will settle into those cracks and make it even more delicious.
Printable Recipe
Glazed Sourdough Lemon Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- ½ cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1½ cups flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup sourdough starter discard
- ¾ cup milk
For the Glaze
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Instructions
Make the Cake
- Prep. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the center. Prepare a loaf pan or 9 x 9 square cake pan with cooking spray.
- Wet ingredients. Combine the vegetable oil, eggs, and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until well combined.
- Dry ingredients and milk. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl and add to the sugar mixture 1/3 at a time, alternating with the milk and the sourdough starter. Mix on low until just combined. Stir in the lemon juice and lemon zest by hand. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake and cool. Bake for 50-60 minutes (for the loaf pan) or 40-50 minutes (for the square pan) until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes in the pan.
Make The Glaze
- In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice for the glaze. Pour over the still-warm cake.
- After the glaze has soaked in and hardened, remove cake from pan and allow to finish cooling on wire rack. Slice and serve once cool.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Love,
great recipe, I did add poppy seeds since I’m a huge fan of lemon poppyseed muffins. I had been given a ton of lemons by a neighbor that I had zested and juiced & I used those. I’d also made lemon curd, and I put that down the middle of the unbaked loaves. Yummy! poked holes in the loaves while they were still pretty warm and then poured the glaze over. I’ll definitely make again.
Wonderful! I used European style whole milk yogurt (nice and runny) instead of milk, so I used .5 tsp of baking soda out of habit, in addition to the baking soda. Half good EVO and half sunflower oil. (I tasted the batter before I added the lemon, and it was divine … I might try that next time …) The only other alteration was I added a tiny bit green cardamom to the glaze and a very tiny pinch of good salt for just a little extra dimension to the flavor – you can’t really taste it distinctly, but its presence is there. There’s not much left today. 🙂
Thanks for a great recipe!
I’ve made this several times and it is always a family favorite! Today I didn’t have lemons, it was snowing so I substituted orange zest and juice from an orange. It is fabulous!!
thank you evie! I keep meaning to try orange!
Thanks for sharing this very amazing recipe. Made it into muffins and they are so soft and fluffy. Oven 180 degree Celsius for 20 mins. I did double the lemon juice and zest as suggested by some. Will be keeping this recipe for future reference.
i’m glad you liked it elena! 🙂
I made this today. Everyone liked it. I think next time I will add more lemon juice to the glaze.
Delicious and easy, thanks
This is so delicious! I made it without the baking soda. Instead of a glaze, I put a frosting on top that had lots of lemon zest in it. Also, there was some extra batter left when I made the loaf, and so I used the extra batter in my donut pan and baked it until they had browned a bit (maybe about 15 minutes). The donuts were a hit! I’m thinking of making this again just using the donut pan. They reminded us of cake donuts. Also, I was thinking that if we omit the lemon flavoring, we could then flavor it other ways, such as with a chocolate or vanilla glaze. What a fantastic recipe, so versatile and delicious. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!!!!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe! I’m actually working on a vanilla version too but I don’t love it quite yet, needs a bit more sugar! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
Very good! Not too sweet! I’d love to see a version with honey instead of sugar!
Really good!!!
Good cake, but unfortunately this has very little lemon flavor as written, even with the glaze. The second time I made this I used a tablespoon of fresh zest and rubbed it into the sugar before mixing, and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. This didn’t affect the cake texture, but needed maybe 3 minutes additional baking time. For the glaze I added 2-3 drops of lemon oil (not extract) and that helped.
Have made this twice and love it!
Quick question could u add coconut to this and do you think better to do it in the batter or glaze?
Thanks!
i think it would be awesome! I’d do coconut extract in the cake and sweetened shredded coconut on top addeed while the glaze is wet!
Thank you so much!
Turned out perfect!! Very moist and delicious!
If you don’t have the sour dough ingredient, is there a substitute, or can you just leave it out !!
Idk what went wrong but was overdone at 30 minutes! I even added foil at 15 because it was getting too brown. And there was almost no lemon taste. I used fresh lemon juice and zest! I’ll give it another try but right now not a fan and highly disappointed:(
hi lisa, most of the lemon flavor definitely comes from the glaze: i find that adding too much lemon to thee loaf itself sometimes had a weird reaction so i keep it light and then load up the glaze with lemon flavor. as for it over-browning at 15 minutes i have no idea what could cause that; that is really strange! i would check your oven temp with an analog thermometer. hope this helps 🙂
Wonderful and tasty. Very good lemony flavor. I would totally make again, it was enjoyed by all.
What size loaf pan do you use. I have a couple of different sizes and not sure which one will work best
i use 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2/12
Cake was a breeze to whip up, delicious and lemony loved it.
I am baking this the second time now. The first time I baked it, I used both baking powder and soda, and baked it in a loaf pan. The cake had an odd shape, where the sides pulled up, creating an indentation/crater along the edges. The middle of the pan rose nicely as well, but the indentation never completely went away.
This second time, I only added baking powder (no soda), and it seems to be rising ok – but with that rise along the sides and valley along the edges again. Baking in the same loaf pan. I have been baking for a long time, but I have never seen this before. Is it due to the sourdough discard addition? Is there a way to avoid/counteract it?
The taste of the cake was really good – I added extra juice and zest as recommended by others.
I did mine in a bundt pan today! Turned out beautifully…I took the cake out of the pan after 15 mins and then added the glaze over top.
Hi, how many cups of batter does this recipe make? I’m thinking of using Bundt tin. Will it fit into a 6cups Bundt mould?
Thanks
hi Joe! I would guess a bit under 5 cups of batter. But it does rise and dome on the top. It should work, but you might have to cut off the bottom. The only issue I see is pouring the glaze onto the warm cake and having the pan held contain it (since it will be upside down.). The cake relies on the glaze for sweetness and lemon flavor. Good luck 🙂