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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Thanks for another great recipe, Katie!
Made this for Easter brunch and it was excellent! I used vanilla greek yogurt and it turned out great without the need for added liquid. Will definitely be making this again and again!!
really good! five stars out of five, and like others said it didn’t even need the icing. great recipe!
This is my fifth or sixth time making the recipe now, so I figured it was probably high time I left a comment about it on the page thanking you for the delicious recipe. I don’t usually have success with recipes I’ve tried from other blogs, but yours never fails me. Thanks for yet another successful recipe!
I cannot believe how good this is! I’ve only had the lemon cake from Starbucks a few times (normally I am more of a drinks girl at Starbucks). But I can say with assurance that this one is way better! The fact that it’s so much lower in calories and sugar is just icing on the cake. The lemon cake 😉 😉
I made this yesterday and it was absolutely delicious! I used muscovado sugar which made the cake brown in color (and didn’t look like lemon cake at all..lol), but you know how looks could be decieving. Everyone in the family loved it! Definitely won’t be the last time I’m making this. Thank you!
So I tried seeing if someone else already asked, but my question is in regards to the nutritional information. It says 49grams is a serving size, but I’m not sure if that’s when the cake has been sliced into 8 or 10 slices. Has anyone had a chance to figure this out? My scale doesn’t like me when I try to figure grams.
Thanks
Hi Nicole,
I’m not 200% sure, but I believe the nutrition is based on 8 slices. You can always enter the ingredients into an online (free) nutrition calculator and see what matches your serving size best.
Hope this helps!
This is SO good! I just made it with whole wheat flour and light and fluffy texture was not compromised at all. I will definitely have to store it in the freezer, otherwise it’s all going to disappear before lunch 🙂
I wonder …for those of us with dairy allergies…if you could substitute almond or coconut yogurt for the yogurt (or even coconut cream????)..I am really new to this “a whole bunch of food allergies” life! just looking for some options and this looks delish!!! thanks so much for any thoughts out there! (oh no eggs either 🙂
Debbi
You can! I am actually vegan and do not use yogurt. I usually use Wholesoy (going out of business, sadly) or So Delicious coconutmilk yogurt. 🙂
Hey Katie.. anything that I can sub for the yogurt?
Do you think this would work with sprouted spelt flour?
Does anyone know if this loaf freezes well to make ahead of time? It looks delicious!
Mmmm I made this with coconut yogurt and coconut oil, and the combination with the lemon is fantastic. Thanks for another great recipe. (Also for some reason my cat wants to eat this cake. Not sure why as I didn’t think a cat would like lemon. Maybe he likes coconut?! Anyway, he’s not getting any 😀 )
yup that looks good. but even better with my cookies n’ cream pudding. like :
https://lett-trim.today/2015/05/18/rainbow-fruit-kabobs/#comment-3363672%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
This cake was incredibly delicious, but it didn’t rise very much. I used a 8.5×4.5 pan. Could adding more baking soda or baking powder work to keep it from being so flat?
Recipe says to use an 8-inch pan, not 8.5
LOVED LOVED LOVED this recipe!!!!! Thank you!!!!