This mini lemon loaf recipe is adapted from Scientifically Sweet for my home bakery in Maryland.

Even though I specialize in chunky cookies, I was starting to get a little tired of just making cookies! Rather than officially expanding my product line, I decided to offer gift with purchases instead.

That way, I can bake whatever I want 😛

And I’m sure some customers will ask for certain bakes to make a comeback. However, since they’re not part of my official lineup, I don’t have to bring them back.

(Of course, I probably will lol, but having the freedom not to is just in my Sag moon nature.)

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Why make a mini lemon loaf?

I originally wanted to offer thin and crispy s’mores cookies as my first gift with purchase — I know I said I was sick of making cookies, but I was sick of making chunky cookies, which take about 17 minutes to bake and is much too long for marshmallows to survive baking.

But, they were a complete disaster!!! The base recipe absolute sucked donkey balls.

So, I was thinking back on what I could make the night before the market. GG.

I already knew that my customers LOVE lemon as does my cousin who raved about this lemon loaf I made for Thanksgiving. So, I went back to my personal Cake Pan Converter Spreadsheet, which I created to take the pan size of any recipe into 25+ pan sizes, and decided to make mini lemon loaves.

Lemon people, as I lovingly call them, are incredibly loyal and reliable! I just knew that this would be a hit even more so than the s’mores cookies would have been.

Sometimes things going wrong leads to something going more right than if the wrong thing did go right lol.

Unsurprisingly, the mini lemon loaves were a smash hit! I successfully made upsells and ran out of mini lemon loaves with 2 hours to spare 🙂

Changes made to the original lemon loaf recipe

The original recipe uses lemon zest rubbed in granulated sugar to extract the oils in the lemon peel. But, I personally prefer using a lemon emulsion, which is a water-based flavoring, for consistency and control because sometimes the lemons in my area absolutely suck lol.

Another thing I do to almost all my bakes is use both salted butter and add more salt. I don’t know how, but I figured out the most salt you could add to a baked good using salted butter to get that salty-sweet balance people always talk about.

If you go looking for the salt, you can taste it. But, I’ve never had a complaint that my bakes were too salty.

Generally with baking, you want to use full-fat dairy products, but I only have 2% milk, so I used 2% milk. I do have full-fat sour cream so I think that helps combat any moisture loss from not using full-fat milk.

I also had to forgo the glaze because it was 9pm and didn’t have any lemons on hand, but honestly, it really didn’t need it!

Next time, I plan on adding a crumb topping to my mini lemon loaves — YUM.

My favorite baking tools

Like any good baker, I use a food scale — in fact, I have two! I don’t use cup or teaspoon measurements anymore to be honest.

I bought the smaller food scale with 0.01g accuracy before I started my business and needed a second food scale with a larger weight limit and another a 0.01g mini scale attached, so I really actually have three food scales lol.

I recently bought this silicone mini loaf pan for my brookies (brownie cookies) and this was PERFECT for my mini lemon loaves. One of my best business purchases!

Personally, I use a KitchenAid for… almost everything! I actually was given one by my aunt who used to run a convenience store with a kitchen! So, she gave it to me when she retired. It’s a hair small for my liking, but hey — it was free lol.

Mini Lemon Loaf Recipe

This recipe makes 8 mini loaves. Based on the Copycat Starbucks Lemon Loaf by Scientifically Sweet.

Loaf Ingredients

• 150.00g White Sugar
• 82.50g Eggs (room temp)
• 7.50g Lemon Emulsion
• 42.00g Butter (melt)
• 45.00g Canola Oil
• 60.00g Sour Cream (room temp)
• 3.75g Salt
• 176.25g AP Flour
• 3.60g Baking Powder
• 0.90g Baking Soda
• 60.00g Milk (room temp)

Glaze Ingredients

• 90.00g Powdered Sugar
• 22.50g Lemon Juice
• 0.47g Salt

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
2. Place a silicone mini loaf pan on top of a half baking sheet. Set aside.
3. With a whisk and a mixing bowl or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add white sugar, eggs, and lemon emulsion. Mix until the sugar is dissolved.
4. Mix in butter, canola oil, sour cream, and salt until just combined.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, add AP flour, baking powder, and baking soda through a fine sieve. Mix until well combined.
6. If mixing by hand, switch to a silicone spatula — Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
7. Mix in milk until just combined.
8. Pour the 78g batter into each silicone mold.
9. Bake for 18-21 minutes
10. Set aside to cool completely.

Don’t have the baking pan I used? Here’s the recipe spreadsheet I created for this Glazed Lemon Loaf recipe.

Conclusion

Whether you’re making these mini lemon loaves using my new favorite silicone mini loaf pan or want to bake the original recipe as is, I hope you can have faith that things don’t turn out for a reason like I’m learning to do.

Coming up with the idea to upsell with gift with purchases came from the need to get rid of some marshmallows. But, now I have an amazing new strategy to boost sales for my business and have some variety in my baking routine.

Still have the marshmallows by the way lol.

I think lemon loaves were the perfect launch to this new aspect of my business. I hope this scaled down version is helpful to you!

WANT MORE CONVERTED RECIPES?

Check out the Recipe Library to see what other bakes you can make in over 25 baking pan sizes!

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