As vibrant as sunshine, this moist cake is bursting with citrusy flavor from the fresh lemon juice and zest. Perfect for a refreshing treat, it's finished with a tart lemon glaze for an extra pucker of flavor. If you prefer one tall loaf to two shorter loaves, bake in one loaf pan.
2 standard size loaf pans approximately 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches
Ingredients
Cake Loaves
⅓cupvegetable oil
4large eggs
1cupsour cream
15.25ozyellow cake mix, or vanilla cake mix
4ozinstant lemon pudding mix
3lemons, juice and zest
Lemon Icing
3cupspowdered sugar
2Tbspsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1lemon at room temperature or slightly warm (use juice and zest)
1Tbspmilk, optional if needed to thin the icing and the lemon juice is gone
Instructions
Cake Loaves
Heat oven to 350℉. Grease two standard loaf pans OR just one if you want one larger, tall loaf.
In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat or whisk together the oil, eggs, and sour cream.
Zest 3 lemons. Set aside. Then add the juice from all 3 lemons to the egg mixture.
Whisk or beat in the cake mix and pudding mix. Stir in lemon zest.
Pour evenly into two greased loaf pans. Bake at 350℉ for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. (If baking in one loaf pan, you may need to bake an extra 10 minutes or so.) Cool completely before icing.
Lemon Icing
Zest one lemon. Set zest aside. Squeeze the juice out of the lemon.
In a bowl, beat together the powdered sugar and softened butter. Add the lemon juice. Be sure it's room temperature or slightly warmer (5 seconds in the microwave) so it doesn't seize up the butter. At this point, the icing should be the consistency you want for drizzling on top of the loaves. If not, add more powdered sugar or lemon juice (or room temp milk) to get the consistency, Sprinkle lemon zest onto the icing. Let rest for at least 1 hour. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.