I love lemon cake! But not just any pound cake with a few drops of lemon in it. Really good lemon cake has to taste like lemonade: fruity, zesty and tart. This recipe for lemon loaf with sourdough therefore contains two whole lemons (zest and juice). The sourdough ensures that the cake stays fresh and soft for a long time and gives the cake additional flavor. Unlike many other sourdough recipes, the batter is quick and easy to make and does not need to ferment before baking (but it can). Because the pound cake also contains baking powder, you can also use sourdough discard and leftover sourdough for this recipe.
✨ The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.✨
Variation: Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf
If you want to spice up your lemon cake a little, you can mix two tablespoons of poppy seeds into the batter. The little dots in the lemon poppy seed loaf not only look pretty, but also give your sourdough cake a fine nutty aroma.
Ingredients for this pound cake with sourdough
- Sourdough starter or sourdough discard: Because this recipe contains an additional leavening agent, it is not important how strong your sourdough starter is. It works just as well with freshly fed sourdough as with starter that has been waiting in the fridge for a week. I feed my sourdough starter with roughly equal parts flour and water. I use a mixture of wheat and rye flour. If you feed your sourdough in a different ratio, you will probably need to adjust the proportion of water in this recipe.
- Wheat flour: I used all-purpose flour or wheat flour 405 for the lemon cake. You can also replace some of the flour with wholemeal flour or spelt flour. Wholegrain flour can absorb more water than white flour, so you may need to add more liquid to the dough.
- Sugar and salt for flavour.
- Lemons: For an extra fruity lemon cake, I have used the juice and zest of two lemons in this recipe. I would therefore recommend using organic lemons and washing the peel with warm water before zesting.
- Eggs
- Butter (soft).
- Baking powder: If you want to use less leavening agent, you can replace the baking powder with half the amount of baking soda. Unlike baking powder, baking soda requires an acid to react. This can be apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, buttermilk, yoghurt or even sourdough.
Step by step instructions
Mix the dough
Beat the soft butter with the sugar, eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest until fluffy. Then stir in the sourdough starter.
Mix the flour, salt and baking powder (and poppy seeds if desired). Mix the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients.
If you have used small eggs or lemons or your starter is rather firm, you may need to add a few sips of milk until your batter has the right consistency. As with a classic pound cake, the batter should be soft and creamy, but not run off the spoon.
Baking the cake
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease a loaf tin*, carefully pour in the batter and smooth it out. Bake the lemon cake for about 60 minutes until the cake passes the toothpick test.
The icing
For the icing, gradually mix the powdered sugar with the lemon juice until you have a thick icing. Spread the icing over the warm* cake.
Helpful tools – My recommendations
✨ The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.✨
- A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
- A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
- A kitchen scale*.
- You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
- The round enamel cake tin* is scratch-resistant, durable and ideal for cakes and tarts.
- A stainless steel loaf tin*.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A sharp bread knife*.
You can find more product recommendations here.
More cake recipes with sourdough
Sourdough Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Poppy seeds and lemon is one of my favorite combinations when it comes to cakes, cookies and muffins. This recipe for lemon poppy seed muffins with sourdough therefore contains a whole lemon (zest and juice). The sourdough ensures that the muffins stay fresh and soft…
Easy Sourdough Rhubarb Muffins
In a month’s time, it will be St. John’s Day and the rhubarb season here in Germany will come to an end. But until then, I still have one or two rhubarb recipes that I really want to share with you. Today I’m making fluffy rhubarb muffins with sourdough. The batter is…
Easy Sourdough Discard Carrot Cake – Easter Recipe
The best kind of spring cleaning is when you take a jar of sourdough discard out of the fridge and use it to make a really delicious carrot cake. The particularly motivated among you can rinse out the jar afterwards and add fresh sourdough, for example for crispy…
Recipe: Quick and Easy Sourdough Discard Lemon Loaf
Ingredients
- 170 g butter
- 200 g sugar
- 350 g sourdough starter or sourdough discard
- 350 g wheat flour or type 405
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- 4 Eggs
- 2 lemons organic (juice and zest)
- 1 pinch salt
- milk as needed
optional
- 2 tbsp. poppy seeds for Lemon Poppyseed Loaf
- lemon juice and powdered sugar for the icing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
- Beat the soft butter with the sugar, eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest until fluffy. Then stir in the sourdough starter.
- Mix the flour, salt and baking powder (and poppy seeds if desired). Mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients.
- If you have used small eggs or lemons or your starter is rather firm, you may need to add a few sips of milk until your batter has the right consistency. As with a classic pound cake, the batter should be soft and creamy, but not run off the spoon.
- Grease a loaf tin*, carefully pour in the batter and smooth it out.
- Bake the lemon cake for about 60 minutes until the cake passes the toothpick test.
- Optional: For the icing, gradually mix the powdered sugar with the lemon juice until you have a thick icing. Spread the icing over the warm* cake.
Have you tried one of my recipes?
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
You would help me a lot if you would rate this recipe and write your feedback in a comment. Thank you! 🧡
Feel free to show me how it turned out! Link @kruemelig on your Instagram or Facebook post or use #kruemelig. If you want to remember the recipe for later, feel free to save it on Pinterest!
bake at 160? is that accurate?
Hello Shannon! Yes, 160 degrees is correct, but it is 160 degrees Celsius. That equals about 320 degrees Fahrenheit. I hope that helps! 😊