Sweet frosted healthy lemon cake…
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A soft and fluffy lemon cake that instantly melts as it touches your lips…
Sure, that irresistibly moist lemon cake from Starbucks is hard to resist. But with almost 500 calories, a staggering 9 grams saturated fat, and more than half the sugar limit you’re supposed to consume in an entire day, Starbucks’ famed lemon cake is not even close to a healthy breakfast!
To put things in perspective: You could actually eat seven frosted slices of today’s makeover healthy lemon cake and still not equal the calories and saturated fat in just one slice from Starbucks!
This recipe can be low-fat / low-sugar / whole-grain / under 100 calories per slice
So you could save the Starbucks lemon cake for a rare special occasion… or you could eat this homemade healthy lemon cake every single day.
And it’s so good you’ll probably want to do just that!
Healthy Lemon Cake
Starbucks Healthy Lemon Cake
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup yogurt of choice
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 3 1/2 tbsp oil OR more yogurt of choice if oil-free is desired (35g)
- 1/2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- zest one lemon
- 1 cup spelt or white flour (or bob’s gf + 1/2 tsp xanthan) (130g)
- scant 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup xylitol or sugar of choice (100g)
- Optional Powdered Sugar Glaze: 1/4 cup powdered sugar or sugar-free powdered sugar + 1 tsp lemon juice.
Instructions
*2019 Update: This makes a small (8×5) loaf. For a larger loaf, be sure to try this Vegan Lemon Bread!
Starbucks lemon cake healthy makeover: Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8×5 loaf pan, and set aside. In a bowl, whisk the first 5 ingredients. In a separate bowl, stir together all remaining ingredients. Pour wet into dry, and stir just until evenly mixed. Smooth into the loaf pan, and bake 25 minutes or until loaf has risen and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool, then spread the glaze on top if a glaze is desired. Glaze hardens when it cools, and you can refrigerate to expedite the process if you wish. For optimum freshness, store leftover lemon cake slices in the fridge or even in the freezer.
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OMG I am so excited to try this out! Thank you for sharing!
http://www.southernfolly.com
Do I have to make an adjustment in the liquid depending on whether I use “regular” yogurt or the denser Greek yogurt? This would be nice after Easter dinner. Thanks.
I’ve not tried it with a Greek-style yogurt, so my best advice would be to follow the recipe and add extra liquid if the batter looks too thick. You will have to experiment!
Thanks, Katie! I wasn’t sure whether “yogurt of choice” included Greek-style. I will just use ordinary yogurt. I pre-ordered your cookbook and have already given one to a friend. Keep up the good work and friendly comments on your blog! You have quite a following.
I did the greek yogurt and I found my cake to be a little denser and flatter, but tasted great!
I tried the greek yogurt and it worked fine. Didn’t need to add any extra liquid either. Can’t wait to try it.
Mine worked fine! And it tastes delicious! I have had the Starbucks one before, and I actually think this one is better! I would say that even if it weren’t healthy! It’s lighter and spongey and not as heavy or dense as the overly sweet Starbucks lemon cake, and the lemon flavor is perfect!
I felt the same way. Starbucks loaf is too dense and sweet. This one was perfect!
OMG! I’ve been craving lemon cake! This looks so so good!
Katie, this looks absolutely delicious! You never cease to amaze me! 🙂
Why don’t you offer a print option for your recipes? They all look so yummy but it’s hard to remember the ones I like, so I would love to have the option to print the ones I would like to try.
Thank you!
Unfortunately, the company who made the plugin I was using went out of business a few months after I began offering a print option. I’m working with a design team to completely change the site at the moment, but in the meantime you can always highlight just the recipe and right click. It should give you an option to print from there.
Just tried it wanted to print all 13 pages ! :o(
Oh, hi,
When you go to print it, after dragging to select what you want printed, after saying Print, you “should” get the option on the print page to print “selected” only. I guess that might depend on your printer.
Hope that works for you.
I clicked “Ctrl+P” after I had the page brought up. It just shows the recipe…1 page.
Katie,
What brand and flavor of yogurt did you use? I love Whole Soy Unsweetened Vanilla but just found out the company is going out of business! Maybe homemade yogurt will be a recipe here on CCK soon?–hint-hint!
http://www.wholesoyco.com/item/farewell-from-wholesoy#comments
They still sell it over here, so I was very sad to hear they’re going under. They were most definitely my favorite brand.
Do you think this will work in an 8″ round and layer with fresh strawberries? I don’t have a loaf pan. This looks amazing! You are pure genius!
I’ve not tried, but if you experiment be sure to report back 🙂
Starbucks lemon cake is the only pastry item I get from them – I adore it – so I cannot wait to give this a try! Looks absolutely wonderful!
Wow these look SO amazing! The ones at starbucks are great but this looks WAY better, can’t wait to try!
This sounds amazing!!! Thanks for sharing it is so hard to find whole wheat treat recipes. I can’t wait to this! 🙂
I’m wondering why so little lemon in this cake? I love your recipes but Is it really only the zest of 1 lemon?
For real lemon lovers I’m not sure if that is enough.
Don’t forget the lemon juice 😉
Thank you!! I need to read with my glasses on! I look forward to making this with the lemon juice! Lol
I used the zest of two lemons and the cake was fabulous!
Speaking of starbucks….
Have you ever experimented with making chocolate covered coffee beans? I loooove these and want to try making them at home with your chocolate bar recipe. I wonder if the coffee beans should be prepped any special way, guess I’ll see 🙂
I’ve not tried, but probably start with cold beans. That way the chocolate will instantly harden if you use coconut oil 🙂
Awesome! This was my absolute favorite treat from Starbucks before I became vegan! Had no clue about the calories/saturated fat though. Geesh along with the latte I used to get that combo certainly was far from healthy! Can’t wait to give this healthy version a try! Yummy!
I love lemon cake, especially from Starbucks, so I will definitely be making this healthier recipe soon! Yum!!
This looks absolutely amazing! My husband loooooves the lemon cake from Starbucks so I’ll have to make this for him. I was wondering if you think using whole wheat pastry flour would work?
I used whole wheat flour, not pastry flour, and it did not turn out. Could not eat it it. Reccomend white flour only.
Maybe your flour was off? That happened to me one time, I used wholemeal spelt for a CCK chocolate cake and it did not rise at all and was dense and horrible! Not the recipe but the flour. Wholemeal tends to go bad quicker than white flour because it’s still got the ‘germ’ around it. White flour is much more stable and keeps far longer than wholemeal, which is what they started producing it, to have a flour with a longer shelf life.
I used half regular whole wheat and half regular all purpose flour and didn’t have to change/add anything else for it to turn out delicious and moist! I did put the zest of 2 lemons in this one (instead of 1), as I like lemony flavors and also added poppy seed at the end, just mixed in with the batter. I’ve experimented with a lot of recipes (for example the healthy banana bread) and if I apply the half and half adjustment it’s always a success. If the batter turns out to be a bit on the dry side, as whole wheat flour absorbs more liquid, I add 1/3 cup of whatever liquid is used in the recipe. Hope this was helpful!
I used the whole wheat pastry flour. Delicious.
Lemon!! My absolute favorite! Sadly, I am out of vegan yogurt, is there anything that I can replace it with without ruining the texture to much?
I could not wait to get the yogurt. I used vegan mayo and added more lemon peel for the missing yogurt tartness. Delicious.