4.96 from 44 votes

Sour Cream Pound Cake

By Sam MerrittUpdated Jul 21, 2025

52 Comments

Servings: 14 servings

2 hrs 10 mins

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Sour Cream Pound Cake is a beautifully dense, melt-in-your-mouth cake. This classic recipe uses just eight common ingredients and pairs perfectly with berries and whipped cream. Recipe includes a how-to video!

slice of pound cake on a white plate with the remaining cake in the background

A Soft, Perfectly Dense Cake

Straight from my grandmother’s archives, this sour cream pound cake is a true gem of a dessert. While hot milk cake was her go-to recipe, I was excited to find this one in her box of recipes and couldn’t wait to share it.

What to Know About This Recipe:

Spot-on texture. Egg whites and a touch of baking soda lighten the batter so the sour cream pound cake is still classically dense, but with a tender, melt-in-your mouth crumb.
Lower egg yolk ratio. Compared to my classic pound cake, this recipe uses fewer eggs (specifically egg yolks).
Sour cream = secret weapon. Maybe not-so-secret since it’s in the name after all, but the sour cream adds richness, moisture, and tenderness. The texture is great even days later.
Doesn’t shy away from the sugar. 3 cups of sugar, that’s not a typo and yes it’s actually over a pound of sugar. But the sugar isn’t just for sweetness, it’s a key contributor to that perfectly moist crumb, too. Reduce it and the cake as a whole just won’t be as good.
No fancy tools (but a few dishes). Fair warning: today’s recipe uses several bowls and is somewhat time consuming, but the technique is simple and it is 100% worth the effort (and the long bake time). Once its cooled, I suspect you’ll still want to dirty a few more to serve with macerated strawberries and whipped cream

A Soft, Perfectly Dense Cake
What to Know About This Recipe:
What You Need
How to Make It
Frequently Asked Questions
Perfect Pairings:
Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe

What You Need

overhead view of ingredients including eggs, butter, sour cream, flour, and more

Today’s ingredients are super basic and fairly similar to a traditional pound cake, with a few exceptions:

Sour cream. As mentioned above, this is a key ingredient that adds moisture, flavor, and tenderness to the cake. I use it in my blueberry muffins and zucchini cake for the same reason.
Eggs. You’ll be using six whole eggs in this recipe, and unlike my regular pound cake, you’ll be separating them to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks. This creates a soft, beautifully textured cake.
Baking soda. Many traditional versions don’t include a leavening agent, but today’s sour cream version needs a small amount for a nice rise.
Flour. Do NOT use self-rising flour! All-purpose works fine here–just make sure you know how to measure your flour properly, or your cake could come out dry. I like to use a kitchen scale to measure mine.
Optional toppings: This cake is perfectly sweetened as-is and doesn’t really need any addition. However, for a subtle touch add a dusting of powdered sugar, or add a citrus twist with lemon glaze (or a decadent one with a drizzle of chocolate ganache).

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

SAM’S TIP: Make sure to thoroughly grease and flour your pan! I like to use shortening and my hands to get in all the nooks and crannies of the bundt. After adding the flour, remember to tap out an excess, or your sour cream pound cake will come out looking floury.

How to Make It

collage of four photos showing egg yolks and then a flour mixture being mixed into butter and sugar

Thoroughly cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer (or you can use a stand mixer!).
Add the egg yolks one at at time (remember, keep the egg whites separate for now!), then add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients.
Alternate adding the dry ingredients and sour cream to the egg yolk mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. It’s fine to use your electric/stand mixer for this step, but you’ll want to be done with it and switch to using a spatula once it’s time to add the egg whites.

collage of four photos showing egg whites being whipped to stiff peaks, folded into cake batter, and baked in a bundt pan

Whip your egg whites to stiff peaks in a separate clean, dry, and grease-free bowl.
Gently fold your whipped egg whites into your batter (spatula for this step, not a mixer!).
Pour the batter into a thoroughly greased and floured pan (so important!) and bake for 90 minutes.
Use a wood skewer to test your cake for doneness (a toothpick isn’t quite deep enough), then let your cake cool in its pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

SAM’S TIP: The particularly low and long baking temperature allows this cake to cook thoroughly through without over-baking. This yields an unbelievably soft texture and a less firm, lighter exterior compared to traditional pound cake. That being said, you still can overbake this cake, so keep an eye on it!

overhead view of a pound cake that's been sliced and served on white plates with a macerated strawberry topping

Frequently Asked Questions

Does sour cream pound cake need to be refrigerated?

I recommend storing in an airtight container (or tightly wrapped in plastic wrap) at room temperature. While my grandmother’s notes indicate that the fridge may be used to store this cake and it’ll keep longer that way, since the refrigerator has a tendency to dry out cakes I generally try to avoid storing cakes in there unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Can I use cake flour instead?

Yes, cake flour works great here. You will want to use 3 1/3 cups or 375 grams (note the weight will be the same as it is for all-purpose flour, but the volume will be different; this is because cake flour is lighter and finer than all purpose so you need more by volume to substitute properly).

Why is my sour cream pound cake dry?

The most likely culprit is that the cake was simply baked for too long or on too high of a temperature. Keep in mind many ovens run much hotter than they let on, so it’s a good idea to keep an oven thermometer in your oven (keep it near the center, where you will do most of your baking) to know whether yours is being honest with you or not.

macerated strawberries being spooned onto two slices of cake on a white plate

Perfect Pairings:

Homemade Whipped Cream Recipe

Perfect, Versatile Chocolate Ganache

Macerated Strawberries

Pistachio Cream

If you’ve tried my other pound cake recipes (I have a lemon pound cake and a classic bundt cake, too!), I’d love to hear how you feel this one compares!

Enjoy!

Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook

4.96 from 44 votes

Sour Cream Pound Cake

Sour cream pound cake is a beautifully dense, melt-in-your-mouth cake. This classic recipe uses just eight common ingredients and pairs perfectly with berries and whipped cream.

Recipe includes a how-to video!

Prep: 40

Cook: 1 30

Total: 2 10

Servings: servings

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Equipment

Ingredients

▢ 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, softened
▢ 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar
▢ 6 large eggs, whites and yolks separated (room temperature preferred)
▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
▢ 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
▢ ¼ teaspoon baking soda
▢ ¾ teaspoon table salt
▢ 8 oz (226 g) sour cream

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300F (145C) and thoroughly grease and flour a 12 cup bundt pan or ten inch tube pan. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) and use electric mixer to beat together until thoroughly creamed.
1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar
Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in vanilla extract.
6 large eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and table salt.
3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon table salt
Alternate adding flour and sour cream to the sugar mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture (I do the flour in 4 parts and the sour cream in 3).
8 oz (226 g) sour cream
In yet another bowl (this one medium-sized and completely clean, dry, and grease free), place egg whites and use a clean electric mixer to beat until you have stiff peaks. Fold gently into batter.
Pour batter evenly into prepared pan and transfer to 300F (145C) oven and bake for 90 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Notes

Different pans

This cake may be baked in two 9×5” bread pans. Thoroughly grease and flour the pans and bake in the center rack for approximately 60-70 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs.

Storing/Serving

This cake may be prepared up to several days in advance and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. It also may be frozen, allow to return to room temperature before serving.