sour cream and lemon pound cake

This was a rainy day cake. I mixed all the ingredients together while it poured outside my windows and the sky looked dark and mean. By the time I put it in the oven the rain had stopped and the sun peaked out so that I could open the windows and breathe in that lovely scent of spring.

Every bite of this cake is lemony, light, moist, and sweet. It’s a really good cake. If you wanted to you could make a lemony glaze or syrup to drizzle over the top but I think it’s sweet enough the way it is, with just a dusting of powdered sugar.

By the way, pound cake refers to a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Since that would make a beast of a cake many pound cake recipes are adapted. I halved all the ingredients from the original of this recipe to fit my 8 cup bundt pan. The only thing I didn’t reduce was the lemon zest and juice giving the cake a wonderfully bright, lemony flavour. Zing!

Sour Cream and Lemon Pound Cake

adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

1.5 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 cups sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/2 cup sour cream
powdered sugar, to dust

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease 8-cup tube/Bundt pan. Dust pan with cake flour; tap out excess flour.
Sift flour, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition. Beat in lemon juice and peel. Using a rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients. Mix in sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around cake in pan. Turn out cake.
Carefully turn cake right side up on rack and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature).

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Category: recipe | Tags: baking, cake, lemon love, spring, sweet treats 8 comments »

8 Responses to “sour cream and lemon pound cake”

Kathryn
May 2nd, 2011 at 7:18 am
I love sour cream in cakes; it gives them such a wonderful moist texture and this recipe sounds perfect for spring.

[Reply]
brandi
May 2nd, 2011 at 8:25 am
that looks awesome! i just made a lemon pound cake two weekends ago when we were visiting family and cannot WAIT to make it again and actually get a picture of it for the blog :)

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Jessica @ How Sweet
May 2nd, 2011 at 9:25 am
This sounds like my perfect dessert. Delicious!

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Megan (The Runner's Kitchen)
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:53 am
Mmmm, sour cream pound cake. Be still my heart! Baked goods like this remind me of my childhood :)

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holly
May 9th, 2011 at 10:26 am
this looks like the loveliest rainy day baking cake. and there is just something about the flavor of lemon that is so classic! loves.

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Stephanie Deal
September 23rd, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Just found this recipe on A Tasty Kitchen. Made it this afternoon and wow — such a super recipe! The cake is light, fluffy and so lemon-y! Just perfect with a dusting of powdered sugar. Thanks for sharing, I’ll surely be making this again.

[Reply]
Sulara Abbasi
April 5th, 2013 at 10:22 am
where it says 1.5 for flour. Would that be a cup and a half?

[Reply]
Angharad Reply:
April 9th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Yep, 1.5 cups = a cup and a half.

[Reply]