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
- 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).