This recipe, which my great-grandfather brought with him from Austria, has become a staple of our family’s holiday meals.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 (8×4-inch) loaf cake |
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest, or more to taste
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8×4-inch loaf pan.
- Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until lighter in color and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream, vanilla, and lemon zest; beat for 2 minutes. Combine flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating until just incorporated. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.
- To make glaze: Whisk confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice together in a medium bowl until smooth. Place cooled cake on a serving plate and pour glaze over entire cake; allow glaze to dry before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 407 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 63 g |
| Cholesterol | 85 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 327 mg |
| Sugars | 40 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I made this cake with just a couple of changes. First, I mixed everything by hand (no electric mixer, as it was late at night and I didn’t want to make too much noise). I didn’t have sour cream, so I used plain yogurt instead. I anticipated that the lemon flavor would be relatively mild, and since I am a lemon fiend, I added a quarter cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice to the batter (I did this at the very end because I didn’t want the acidity from the lemons to “cook” the eggs). I baked the cake in my 9-inch spring-form pan instead of a loaf pan (25 minutes), and I used 1 cup confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and added 1 tablespoon of grade-A maple syrup to my glaze. It came out amazing!
I read the first few reviews and this sounded great -then I made it. Followed recipe exactly. End of 35 minutes runny in center so raised temp to 350 and baked for 10 more minutes. Very heavy and unappealing texture and little lemon flavor . Does not belong in my recipe box
I used Presidents Choice Gluten Free flour and a egg replacer due to dietary needs in our house. We did not do the glaze as kids don’t like glaze. We accidentaly put the lemon juice into the loaf batter but it turned out flavourful. We also put in poppyseeds. I will be making this again!
I used Robin Hood Gluten free All Purpose flour blend. … Don’t do that. just don’t. I love the flavour, but the texture was surely affected. i really craved a good strong tart lemon flavour, so i used a wooden skewer to poke deep holes into the loaf, then carefully poured fresh lemon juice into them. then i poured thin glaze over, let that set, then thickened the rest of the glaze and drizzled it on top and sprinkled with more lemon zest. oh, i also put the loaf back in the pan so that all juice and glaze would stick around. So delicious for me, but will not share this one, lol. the gluten free flour substitute meant for a very sand-like texture.
Tasty cake.. very lemony. I added a bit more zest. The glaze was very sweet so I would use less next time… and add some almonds. I made these as cupcakes since I live alone and can toss the rest in freezer. I baked them for 20 minutes at 325… got 10 cupcakes
Oh this was fantastic! I made the recipe as is and wouldn’t change a thing!
7.9.20 I read the reviews, and the criticisms were pretty much the same throughout. First, uncooked in the middle, and second, lacking lemon flavor. I added extra lemon zest to the batter as well as a teaspoon of recently-bought lemon extract (it was fresh), and I still could taste very little lemon. Instead of 30-35 minutes to bake (can’t imagine it ever cooking in that amount of time), this took 63 minutes for a toothpick inserted in the center to come out clean. I didn’t want a heavy icing on the top, so I just mixed up 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar with some lemon juice and did a drizzle which worked out fine. I’m no expert baker, but I have to wonder if cooking at 350ºF instead of 325ºF would have been better.for cooking the loaf all the way through. I made a loaf cake several weeks ago with lemon and sour cream, and it cooked beautifully at 350ºF for one hour. Unfortunately, this just didn’t work for me. It pretty much was flavorless, was dry, and had a rough/heavy texture. I served it with syrupy strawberries, and the juice did soften it, so it OK for shortcake. Sorry for the bad review, but I think this recipe has issues, and I won’t be making it again, just movin’ on.
Delicious! After reading other reviews about needing a stronger lemon flavor I added a box of lemon pudding mix to the flour. I think this thickened the batter just a little too much too I thinned it out a bit with a small bit of milk. The icing was very thick and there wasn’t enough liquid to make creamy instead of powdery so I thinned it with a bit of milk and some lemon extract.
I mostly followed this recipe but made 3 changes: 1)I added the zest of an entire lemon to the cake batter instead of just a teaspoon, 2)I used a 9×5-inch loaf pan instead of 8×4, and 3)I cooked the cake for 40 minutes instead of 30-35. I did not have the problem of the cake being wet in the center, perhaps due to the larger pan and longer cook time. The cake was not light and fluffy but more like a dense pound cake. My only complaint is that I would like for the cake part to have tasted lemony. Perhaps next time I will add some lemon extract to the batter. The glaze really delivers on the lemon taste. I added a little zest on top to pretty it up.
it was delicious. i loved it.
Used a whole lemon grated rather than just a teaspoon. Lets call that a happy little accident! Otherwise followed to the letter. Made after dinner one evening and was all eaten up by midnight! Soo good! Thanks for the recipe!
Made 2 Need a adult treat for Halloween while we give out to the kids Enjoy your Halloween everyone
Could use more lemon flavor
Needed to up the baking time by 5-10 minutes, but the toothpick test ensured that I didn’t undercook it. Yummy cake!
Also found the baking time to be off, left in the oven for about 50 minutes. POured sugar lemon glaze over the top when removed from the oven. PRetty good, but not enough lemon flavor for me.
Added juice of one lemon to cake batter, omitted the cornstarch, added 3/4 teaspoon baking powder, and cooked 50 minutes – beautiful
this was a great lemon loaf. that being said I did double the amount of lemon in the loaf and cut the amount of icing sugar in the glaze in half. it also took closer to 50 minutes to cook
I just made four of these and they turned out perfectly!!!
We love lemon loafs around here. I’m always searching for the ultimate loaf. This is a good recipe but not quite perfect. It needs a little more cooking time and extra peel (or a bit of extract) as other reviewers have noted. I love the addition of the sour cream.
When I saw that the center was still very wet after the alloted time, I turned the oven down 25 degrees and put tinfoil loosely over the top. Turned out beautifully. Next time, I’ll try 45 min-1hr at 300 degrees.
Good, easy recipe,Ihad no sour cream so subbed with milk,doubled lemon peel but think more lemon flavouring would be good. Baking time in a loaf pan took lot longer.