Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

  • Blending butter and oil gives the cake a fine, rich crumb.
  • Sour cream stands in for a portion of the fat and eggs, for a boost in lactose to promote flavorful browning in the crust.
  • A small amount of baking powder helps the crown to split.
  • Baking at 375°F (190°C) will encourage the cake to peak.

I have a lot of feelings about cake, in all its many forms. From feather-lightangel foodto downy squares ofcoffee cakeor a rich and fluffyvanilla layer cake, most recipes aim for dainty airiness.

Not pound cake, though—it's a heavy hitter served in slabs. With a crumb as smooth as marble, it's dense to the point of creaminess, and velvety-soft as it melts on your tongue. The whole thing is encased in a golden crust, one that peaks so high it splits right down the middle as it bakes. It's a thing of beauty on its own, or a canvas for the season's best fruit.

Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (1)

In the olden days, pound cake called for equal weights of sugar, butter, eggs, and flour (hence the name), with no leavening but the air naturally entrapped throughproper creaming. Without any added liquid, the batter turned out especially thick, eager to dome up in the oven. That behavior is exacerbated by the limited surface area and volume of an eight-inch loaf pan versus an eight-inch round, creating an uneven baking environment in which the outer edges set far more rapidly than the middle, pushing the thick batter inward and up so it crests in one long peak, like a mountain range.

Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (2)

To be honest, you can still make a fine pound cake with traditional methods and ratios, so I won't begrudge purists. But with a few strategic tweaks, I can exaggerate the qualities I love (golden crust, fine crumb, big crown) and avoid the ones that cause trouble—namely, pound cake's tendency toward dryness.

Sour Cream for Even Browning

Starting from a base that uses an equal weight of each ingredient, my recipe diverts some of the fat and egg content toward sour cream. While butter is relatively low in lactose, the milk sugar responsible for the delicious Maillard browning of dairy products, sour cream is comparatively high. As a result, that shift boosts both flavor and browning in the crust, but without sacrificing the protein needed for structure (or the fat needed to keep the cake moist). The kicker is that sour cream's acidity prevents that delicious browning from happening too fast; even after almost an hour in the oven, the crust is even all around and golden, not burnt.

Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (3)

Unlike other types of lactose-rich dairy, such as buttermilk, cream, and yogurt, sour cream won't thin the batter, instead keeping it thick enough to crown in the oven. And compared to strained Greek yogurt, which is appropriately thick, sour cream is low in casein—a protein known to improve volume in baked goods, but which can actually make the pound cake too fluffy. For that reason, Greek yogurt does best in recipes likemy coffee cake, where added lightness is a welcome touch.

Aside from reducing the quantity of butter and eggs to accommodate the sour cream, my recipe uses just a touch more sugar than flour, rather than equal parts. This helps to limit gluten development, improve moisture retention, and enhance caramelization, a trifecta that ensures a tender, golden-crusted pound cake resistant to drying out. Last, and most controversially, I also use a small scoop of baking powder. By its nature, it won't release the bulk of its carbon dioxide until warmed above 140°F (60°C), which takes a rather long while in super-dense pound cake. (More on the mechanics of baking powderhere.) In this recipe, that means baking powder doesn't provide leavening so much as a late-stage release of carbon dioxide that'll help blow open the top.

Coconut Oil for More Velvety Texture

The last "trick" to my recipe stems from equal parts compulsive pragmatism and science. Based strictly on math, my recipe requires five ounces of fat, but butter is typically packaged in four-ounce sticks. Rather than orphan a partial stick of butter to get that extra ounce, I scoop out an ounce of refined coconut oil. It's an easy swap, since I always have a jar or two on hand, and, since it's solid at room temperature, it creams up just as fluffy and light when mixed into the butter. Plus, its lower melting point makes the finished pound cake seem even creamier on the tongue. But no harm, no foul if you'd rather use butter!

Making the Pound Cake

Despite its unique configuration of ingredients, my pound cake comes together like any other butter cake. That means creaming the butter, sugar, oil, salt, vanilla bean, and baking powder up front, then adding whole eggs and beating only until the batter looks smooth.

From there, the all-purpose flour and sour cream (plus vanilla extract) are incorporated in alternating additions. If you're not already familiar with the finer points, I've written about those steps in depthhere.

Unlike layer cakes, which use a thin batter that should never fill the pan more than halfway (more on thathere), pound cake batter is thick, and should fill the pan within an inch of the top to encourage a prominent crown. Using a bigger pan (or a recipe that calls for less batter) will lead to flat-topped loaves.

Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (5)

Flouring the pan is big no-no for delicate layer cakes, but crucial for crust development in pound cake. Just as crucial? The use of reflective aluminum, which will conduct heat quickly and evenly to the crust, without the exaggerated browning of nonstick or the delayed timetable of stoneware and glass. The longer the cake's in the oven, the greater its moisture loss and the tougher its crust, so the type of pan used is of make-or-break importance! Look for cheap and simple pans from companies that aren't charging you for overengineered details; mine is a traditional "one-pound" loaf pan from Chicago Metallic.

Proper Cooling and Resting

Bake the pound cake until it's golden on top, about 55 minutes at 375°F (190°C), or to an internal temperature of about 200°F (93°C). Set aside until the pan is cool enough to handle, then loosen the cake with a butter knife, remove it from the pan, and wrap tightly in plastic to minimize moisture loss while it's cooling.

In the course of recipe development, I discovered that my pound cakes universally tasted better the next day. Loaves that seemed a bit dry and crumbly when warm cooled and aged overnight into something far more velvety and moist. It's not that youhaveto wait 24 hours; only that pound cake has unusual keeping qualities that make it a smart make-ahead dessert for picnics, care packages, and much more.

Once it's fully cool, serve it up however you like—with ice cream, as a stand-in for shortcake, toasted with butter, or as a vehicle for fresh summer berries. To that end, a coordinating batch ofchantilly made with freeze-dried fruitis a great way to underscore (or contrast!) the flavor of whatever fresh fruit you have on hand.

June 2017

Recipe Details

Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe

Active20 mins

Total4 hrs 30 mins

Serves8to 10 servings

Makes1 loaf

Ingredients

  • 8 3/4 ounces sugar (about 1 1/4 cups; 250g)

  • 4 ounces unsalted butter(about 8 tablespoons; 115g), about 65°F (18°C)

  • 1 ounce refined coconut oil (about 2 tablespoons; 30g)

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/2 teaspoon (2g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume

  • 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved for another use

  • 3 large eggs, brought to about 65°F (18°C)

  • 7 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour, such as Gold Medal (about 1 2/3 cups, spooned; 215g), plus more for dusting pan (see notes)

  • 1/2 ounce vanilla extract(about 1 tablespoon; 15g)

  • 5 ounces sour cream (about 2/3 cup; 140g)

Directions

  1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease a 1-pound aluminum loaf pan and dust with flour. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine sugar, butter, coconut oil, baking powder, salt, and vanilla seeds. Mix on low to combine, then increase to medium and cream until fluffy and light, about 5 minutes. About halfway through, pause to scrape bowl and beater with a flexible spatula.

    Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (6)

  2. With mixer still running, add eggs one at a time, letting each fully incorporate before adding the next. Reduce speed to low and sprinkle in 1/3 of flour, then add vanilla extract and 1/3 of sour cream. Repeat with remaining flour and sour cream, working in thirds as before.

    Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (7)

  3. Scrape bowl and beater with a flexible spatula and resume mixing on medium speed for 1 second to ensure everything is well combined. The batter should look creamy and thick, registering around 65°F (18°C) on a digital thermometer. (Significant deviation indicates ingredients were too warm or too cold, which can lead to textural problems with the cake.)

  4. Scrape into prepared pan and bake until crust is golden (although the interior of the split crown will be quite pale), about 55 minutes or to an internal temperature of 200°F (93°C). Cool cake to about 90°F (32°C), then loosen with a butter knife and remove from pan. Wrap tightly in plastic and continue cooling until no trace of warmth remains, about 3 hours. Slice with a chef's knife and serve plain, with ice cream, or with fruity whipped cream and fresh fruit.

    Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (8)

Special Equipment

Stand mixer, flexible spatula, 8-inch aluminum loaf pan, digital thermometer

Notes

Problems such as shrinking, toughness, or dense/wet texture can stem from all-purpose flours that are too strong. Cakes in particular benefit from soft all-purpose flours, especially those made from a blend of red and white wheat, such as bleached Gold Medal or Pillsbury.

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Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What does adding sour cream to a cake batter do? ›

Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.

What makes a pound cake turn out dry? ›

Baking a cake in a too-hot oven for the recommended time will dry it out. And baking a cake in a not-hot-enough oven will dry the crust before the center is fully baked.

What makes a cake more moist buttermilk or sour cream? ›

Can't milk or buttermilk do the same? Here's one thing to consider: thickness. Sour cream adds moisture without thinning your batter the same way that a liquid would. That fact that sour cream delivers moisture without further thinning out a batter results in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.

Why did my sour cream pound cake fall? ›

It seems counterintuitive, but too much leavening can actually cause your cake to fall. This is because the leavening activates too quickly during baking, which causes a turbocharged, too-fast carbon dioxide reaction.

Can I substitute sour cream for oil in a cake mix? ›

There are quite a few dairy products that you can use in place of oil, and some of them may surprise you. We mentioned using some skim milk with your applesauce, but other good dairy substitutes include: Buttermilk. Sour cream.

Can I use sour cream instead of eggs in cake mix? ›

SOUR CREAM can also be used in place of yoghurt. Since sour cream has a higher fat content it can actually mimic the fats in an egg and make our recipe extra rich and moist. One egg can be replaced by ¼ cup of sour cream. It acts as just the perfect egg substitute!

Is it better to bake pound cake at 325 or 350? ›

A steady 325-350 degrees is ideal when it comes to baking pound cake.

How do you keep a pound cake moist after baking? ›

The most common cake soak is simple syrup, equal parts sugar and water cooked until the sugar is dissolved. This added bit of liquid and sweetness help make the cake more moist, and stay moist longer. Professional bakers also use a milk soak, which is milk or cream dabbed onto the cake.

How do you keep a pound cake from sinking in the middle? ›

Rotating pans: Some recipes instruct you to rotate the cake pan(s) halfway through baking. Wait until the cake has set to minimize the chance of collapsing as you rotate. Utilize your oven's light to avoid opening the door when checking on your cake. Be super careful not to slam the oven door!

Which milk is best for cakes? ›

The more fat you have in milk, the more the texture of the bake will change. You want bakes to be moist, so this means you should choose milk with a higher fat content to achieve this. Therefore the best milk to use during baking is in most cases whole milk.

What is the difference between cake made with butter and cake made with oil? ›

Oil cakes tend to bake up loftier with a more even crumb and stay moist and tender far longer than cakes made with butter. So why do most cake recipes start with butter? Flavor. Cakes made with butter often taste better than oil cakes.

How long do you let a pound cake cool before removing from the pan? ›

When it's done baking, let the cake sit in the pan for 10 minutes: no more, no less. It's enough time for the cake to firm up some after baking so that it doesn't fall apart, but not so much time that the cake gets stuck to the pan. Ten minutes is the sweet spot.

What causes a pound cake to split on top? ›

Too much flour or too little liquid such as milk or eggs, for example, will cause the batter to be thick and less 'flexible', and result in cracking on the surface as the cake bakes, as well as a heavy, dense texture.

What is the purpose of sour cream? ›

Sour cream is commonly used as a condiment on foods, or combined with other ingredients to form a dipping sauce. It can be added to soups and sauces to help thicken and make them creamy, or in baking to help increase the moisture level over and above using milk.

Why should you cream your cake batter? ›

The creaming method is usually the initial and most important step in the recipe and involves beating fat/s and sugar together until the mixture is light in colour and his increased in volume. It is important for creating air, needed for leavening and thus helps to produce light and fluffy cakes.

How do you make cake batter taste better? ›

Add Milk, Coffee, or Soda

For example, buttermilk sings in a yellow and red velvet cake and brewed coffee makes chocolate cake taste bolder. Also, pop open a can of soda—Sprite, 7 Up, or ginger beer—for lemon and strawberry cake mixes.

Can I omit sour cream in cake? ›

Buttermilk can work great as a substitute, but it's a little trickier since it's so much thinner than sour cream. In baking, we'd recommend only using 3/4 cup of buttermilk for every cup of sour cream called for. The batter may look a little thinner, but it should still bake up nicely.

References

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