sour cream and lemon pound cake

May 2, 2011

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
  1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease 8-cup tube/Bundt pan. Dust pan with cake flour; tap out excess flour.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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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