Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake

This Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake is a shortcut lemon cake that’s soft, moist, and flavorful. Top it with a lemon glaze and you have the perfect dessert.

Lemon Loaf Cake with Lemon Icing

So sweet and tangy, this lemon drizzle cake is easy to make and oh so good. Enjoy it as a dessert, a snack, or with coffee in the morning.

Why you’ll love this Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake Recipe

• It’s easy to make. Using a premade cake mix allows us to save time.
• This lemon drizzle loaf cake uses fresh lemon juice to give it a delicious, but not overwhelming, lemon flavor.

Ingredients 

• Krusteaz lemon cake mix with glaze. We use this brand because it has both the cake mix and the mix for the lemon glaze. However, you can use a different brand of cake and make your own homemade lemon glaze.
• Lemon Juice. Squeeze fresh juice from 1/2 a lemon or use ReaLemon 100% Lemon Juice.
• Eggs and vegetable oil.
• Loaf pan

How To Make Lemon Loaf Cake

Preheat the oven to the temperature specified on the lemon loaf cake mix box. Grease and flour a loaf pan, ensuring all sides are well coated.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the lemon loaf cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, and water. Mix well until all ingredients are fully incorporated and the batter is smooth.

Pour the mixture into a loaf pan and level it out. Bake according to the instructions on the cake mix box, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake set to cool while preparing the lemon glaze. If you are using the Krusteaz lemon cake mix with glaze, the instructions are the box and where you will use the juice from the 1/2 lemon. You can also make your own homemade glaze.

Drizzle the glaze over the cake and let it cool completely. Slice the cake and serve.

Instead of icing the lemon cake while still in the pan, you can transfer the cake to a platter and drizzle the lemon icing over the cake before serving.

Tips & Notes

• Don’t overmix. Overmixing can lead to a loaf cake that is more dense. Mix the lemon loaf cake until the ingredients are combined.
• Don’t overcook. Overcooking the lemon loaf cake will make it dry. Since most oven temps can very, start checking a few minutes before with the toothpick test.
• Use the toothpick test. A few minutes before the cake timer goes off, insert a toothpick (or butterknife) into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean with no batter on it, the cake is done.

Substitutions

• Instead of a lemon, you can substitute the 1/2 lemon with 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice. We prefer ReaLemon 100% Lemon Juice.
• Use yellow or butter cake mix if you want to cut back on the lemon flavor.
• Add lemon zest to the glaze or the batter to give it more color and flavor.

Variations

• Experiment with fruits. Adding fresh blueberries, raspberries, etc. can take this lemon drizzle loaf cake to a whole new level.
• Coconut can be added to the icing, the cake, or both. You only need about 1/4 a cup.
• Make cupcakes. Instead of pouring the batter into a loaf pan, make cupcakes and drizzle the icing over the cupcakes. Cupcakes will need less time to cook.
• Use lemon frosting. If you don’t want to use a lemon glaze, you can ice the lemon loaf cake with lemon frosting. Sometimes we will use lemon frosting. I always put the frosting on the cake right after it has come out of the oven so that the frosting melts a little and drizzles down and around the cake.
• On rare occasions when we don’t have anything lemon in the house, we will use a powdered sugar and milk glaze. It doesn’t add much extra flavor, but we enjoy it on our homemade pop tarts.