• Mise en Place. Bring butter and eggs to room temperature (the butter should be cool, around 65°F, but soft to the touch, not melty or greasy). Measure sugar and lemon zest into one container. In another container, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Grease an 8x4" loaf pan and line with a parchment paper sling. Set aside.
• Chop strawberries. Mince the strawberries into ⅛" pieces. Mix with lemon juice. Set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Cream butter and sugar. Cut the butter into large chunks and place in the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment. Beat on low-medium speed to soften, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugar and lemon zest. Beat on low speed until there's no loose sugar in the bowl, then increase speed to medium and continue creaming for 5-7 minutes, pausing to scrape down the bowl and the beater at least 3 times. Finish by scraping down the sides of the bowl.
When properly creamed together, the butter and sugar mixture will be pale yellow, light, and fluffy with a paste-like texture. If you rub it between your fingers the sugar granules should be almost entirely dissolved but still feel slightly gritty.
• Add eggs. One at a time, crack each egg into a small bowl (to avoid getting shells in your cake!) then dump the egg into the mixer bowl, beating on medium speed for at least 60 seconds and scraping down the bowl again before adding the next egg. Scrape down the bowl again after the last egg has been added.
If the cake batter begins to look split or curdled as you're adding the eggs, don't sweat it too much. It will come back together when you add the flour.
• Alternate adding dry ingredients and sour cream. With the mixer running on the lowest possible speed, add half the dry ingredients. When they are mostly combined, scrape down the bowl and beater. Add the sour cream and mix on low just until combined, then stop and scrape the bowl and beater again. Add the remaining dry ingredients on low speed until just a few streaks of flour remain. Do not over mix!
• Add strawberries. Use a wire mesh strainer to strain the excess juice off the strawberries. Gently stir and lift the berries in the strainer, do not press them through it to get as much juice off as possible. Reserve the strawberry lemon juice for later. Turn the strawberries out onto a paper towel and blot dry. Add the strawberries to the cake batter and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and gently fold them into the cake batter until evenly distributed.
• Bake. Scoop the batter into the parchment lined loaf pan. Use a mini offset spatula to smooth out the batter, pressing it down into the corners and sides of the pan so that there aren't any trapped air bubbles. Level off the top, covering any berries at the surface of the cake as best you can. Bake in the center of a 350°F oven for 60-65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
• Cool. Remove the pan to a cooling rack. Let cool 15-20 minutes, then use the parchment sling to lift the cake out of the pan to finish cooling. Let cool completely before adding icing.

Strawberry Icing & White Icing Drizzle

• Strawberry icing. Sift powdered sugar into a medium mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 teaspoons of the strawberry juice you saved in step #7. Then whisk in the milk ½ teaspoon at a time. This is a very thick icing, it will clump up inside your whisk at first but should move with a slow flowing consistency like molten lava.
I know it's tempting to skip sifting the powdered sugar step, but I wouldn't tell you to sift if it wasn't truly necessary. Powdered sugar is notoriously lumpy and clumpy and if you don't sift it, those lumps will be there even after whisking it. You may need to add more sifted powdered sugar (1 tablespoon at a time) or milk (½ teaspoon at a time) to reach the right thick consistency.
• Use a mini offset spatula to spread the glaze over the top of the loaf cake. Let sit 10-15 minutes to form a crust so the white icing drizzle sits on top of it.
• White icing drizzle. Whisk together the sifted powdered sugar and milk to create a fairly thick icing. Use a fork or a piping bag with a small hole at the tip to drizzle white icing across the top.