For some reason, pound cake reminds me of my childhood. I’m not certain why, but I think it’s because my mom often had pound cake on hand for “company” and my grandmothers seemed to often serve some variation of a pound cake whenever we visited.
Although my maternal grandmother occasionally made hers from scratch, the pound cake from my childhood was most often the iconic, store-bought, five inch square cake, topped with a thick layer of vanilla icing and wrapped in red corrugated paper and cellophane.
Although I haven’t purchased it in years, every time I see this particular pound cake sitting on the shelf at my local grocery store bakery…it always makes me smile.
This recipe for Old-Fashioned Lemon Pound Cake Loaf, is an updated, 21st century take on a childhood favourite.
I hope you will love this pound cake loaf as much as we do!
- Loaf:
- ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 large room temperature eggs
- 2 Tbsp lemon zest (approximately equals the zest from about 1 large lemon) Reserve 1 tsp of this zest for icing drizzle
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp table salt
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- Lemon drizzle:
- ½ cup icing sugar (confectioner)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice plus more, as needed
- 1 tsp. lemon zest
- Loaf:
- Preheat oven to 325 F. Spray an 8x4-inch loaf pan with baking spray and line with a piece of parchment paper that covers the bottom and long sides with a couple of inches or so extending past the top of the pan. (These ends will help you to easily extract the cake from the pan, without having to turn it over)
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter with the sugar, scraping the sides as needed, until light coloured and fluffy. This will take approximately 5-7 minutes.
- While the butter and sugar are beating, in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
- When the butter and sugar mixture is light and fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl, as needed.
- Next, beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the sour cream. Start with ⅓ of the flour, then add ½ of the sour cream, then ⅓ more of the flour, then the remaining sour cream and finally the last of the flour. Stir just to combine, don’t overbeat.
- Remove paddle attachment and bowl from mixer. Scrape batter from the paddle and using a rubber spatula gently stir a couple of times to ensure the flour mixture is well combined.
- Scrape into the prepared 8x4-inch loaf pan and level batter.
- Bake in preheated oven for 55-65 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then run a knife along the short ends and use the parchment paper edges to lift and remove from pan.
- Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
- Lemon drizzle:
- Combine icing sugar, 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice and the reserved teaspoon of lemon zest in a small bowl. If necessary, add a few more drops of lemon juice to make a fairly loose icing.
- When the loaf is cooled, place it’s on a piece of waxed or parchment paper.
- Using a tablespoon, drizzle icing from side to side of the cake, to partially cover.
- Cut into slices and serve immediately or allow icing to set up before carefully storing in a cake tin.
PIN IT – Old-Fashioned Lemon Pound Cake Loaf
As always, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask and I will do my very best to answer.
Have you ever made your own pound cake or pound cake loaf?
I had completely forgotten about the “store bought” pound cake until I read your description and it was suddenly very vivid in my mind.
I have never tried to make it myself, but this looks and sounds so good I will give it a try. Will let you know how it turns out!
Pat, I remember Mom seemed to often have that particular “store bought” version of pound cake and now when I see it, I think of her ❤️.