This Simple Lemon Loaf Starts With Boxed Cake Mix

Lemon pound cake strikes a balance between decadence and lightness, with a bright citrus flavor that cuts through the buttery richness. While most recipes for glazed lemon pound cake have a long list of ingredients, you can save yourself some trouble with the help of an easy three-ingredient recipe that utilizes boxed cake mix, eggs, and a can of coconut milk.

In a recent viral TikTok video from creator @megan.hayes.reid, she claims that her lemon loaf is as good as Starbucks' fan-favorite lemon pound cake. And the best part is that it's a dump-it recipe that uses minimal ingredients and equipment. To make the loaf, add a whole box of lemon cake mix to a bowl, followed by 3 whole eggs and 1 can of full-fat coconut milk, stirring to combine into a smooth batter. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 F for 40 minutes. The result is a bright yellow loaf that is both dense and fluffy with a wealth of citrus flavor. The eggs and coconut milk give it that underlying fattiness associated with pound cake, while the cake mix supplies the lemon flavor and all the dry ingredients for convenience. If you want to make it more like the Starbucks' version, you can whip up a quick glaze to slather over the top using powdered sugar, vanilla, and a dash of milk.

Boxed cake brands like Betty Crocker and Krusteaz make a line of pound cake mixes, and Krusteaz even has a lemon loaf. However, these loaves don't always turn out perfect. In our taste test of Krusteaz pound cake and bread mixes, we found the lemon loaf to be overly dense. So, a three-ingredient dump-it recipe that uses a lighter cake mix will be easier and fluffier. If you want to upgrade the recipe even further, you can add lemon zest to the loaf or lemon juice and zest to the glaze. For a summery treat, you can stir some frozen blueberries into the batter. Frozen raspberries and slivers of almonds would also work well with the citrus flavor. 

@megan.hays.reid

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♬ Coffee shop ... Organic-Cooking-Video(987590) – ImoKenpi-Dou

The lemon loaf hack can apply to other flavors, too. You can swap lemon cake mix for chocolate, vanilla, or pumpkin spice, for example. If you want to take a boxed mix in a different fruity direction, use the clever hack to make a banana bread-inspired loaf with boxed pound cake mix, mashed bananas, eggs, and milk.