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!
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
Jump to:
What You Need
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
- 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.
- 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!
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Yes, cake flour works great here. You will want to use 3 ⅓ 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).
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.
Perfect Pairings:
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
Sour Cream Pound Cake
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
Recommended Equipment
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.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Alissa DePledge
Can I replace the AP flour for GF flour? I usually use Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 baking flour. Thank you! Love all your recipes!
Sam
Hi Alissa! I haven’t personally tried it so I can’t say for sure how it would work. If you do try it, please let me know how it goes so I can pass the information on to everyone else. 🙂
Alissa DePledge
Pound cake turned out great with the above mentioned GF flour, no other substitutions! Definitely a keeper!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful–thanks for letting us know Alissa! Enjoy ☺️
Cherie H. Coleman
This pound cake takes that extra step for a lighter, more delicious outcome. It is by far my favorite recipe for pound cake. It is definitely worth that extra step of separating the eggs and beating the whites.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Cherie! 🙂
Minerva
Absolutley delicious and tastes even better with each passing day. I like to bake this and resist eating it about 3 or 4 days before serving it for a special occasion. My guests go nuts for this recipe.
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoys it so much, Minerva! 🙂
Manga
Hi Sam, I tried the chocolate lava cake with my daughter last night. We loved it. It was super simple and yet super yummy. QQ on this one, can I half the recipe and bake it in one loaf pan. Would the bake timing change?
Sam
Hi Manga! That should work just fine, but I’m not sure on a bake time.
David Hays
Oh my!! I just made this last night. I’ve made sour cream, cream cheese and Crisco pound cakes and they always taste great but every one will fall..or collapse after baking. This one turned out perfect! It was not only beautiful coming out of the oven but it tastes amazing too. It would go great as a base for strawberry short cake or any berries you’d like to use. My personal favorite…that is after I’ve had a slice or two while it is still warm from the oven…is to toast it in a skillet with butter and get a good caramelization of the cake sugars and butter and serve it with a cup of good coffee. I’m not sure what manna from heaven tastes like…but this has got to be close!! It would even be great with a scoop of your favorite flavor of ice cream. Again…thank you Sam for another amazing recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you loved it, David! Thanks so much for the comment and review 🥰
Steven King
I absolutely love this recipe! But am having some difficulty with keeping the top of the cake from separating from the cake. Causing a hollow space that just breaks apart leaving me with pretty much a unpresentable cake. I was wondering if you could tell me why this is happening.like I said I love this cake it’s the best pound cake I have ever eaten. I bake them in 400 half hotel pans. Is the size of the pan my problem or is there something else I’m doing wrong? You are my top go to for dessert recipes. Can you please give me some advice?
Sam
Hi Steven! I’m so glad you love the recipe overall! Are you serving the cake in the pan or flipping it onto a serving platter and then serving? I ask, because it’s very common/expected for the “top” of the cake to have an unattractive appearance after baking. It forms a meringue-like “crust” that can somewhat separate. When made in a tube pan or bundt pan, the “top” of the cake becomes the bottom when the cake is inverted and so it’s not visible. But it sounds like you may be serving it directly in the pan, and so you’re still seeing the crackly meringue top, is that correct? If that’s the case you’ve done nothing wrong and this is, somewhat unfortunately, just part of the design of the cake. I say “somewhat” unfortunately because this is, in my opinion, honestly the best part of the cake too, despite its unfortunate appearance. You could always invert the cake onto a platter for serving so that the appearance is neater, though I totally understand how nice and convenient it is to serve a cake directly in the pan you’ve baked it in!
If I am misunderstanding and this is not what is happening, let me know and I’ll be happy to try and help troubleshoot further. Thank you so much for trying my recipes, I really appreciate it! !
Joanne Brown
I rate it a 10 where 10 is extremely the highest rating, and I would recommend. this recipe to everyone I know.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you liked it, Joanne!
Lorley
Made this pound cake today for our Sunday brunch. The pound cake recipe is simple and easy to assemble. I almost forgot to whip up the egg whites that are folded in at the end. My Bundt cake baked ten minutes less. I just went with the moist crumbs on the toothpick test. Perfection. We ate the cake with strawberries and homemade whipped cream. Wonderful light refreshing snack. Thank you again Sam. I really appreciate your time in testing these recipes for all of us.
Sam
Wonderful! I’m so happy to hear it was such a success, Lorley, thank you so much for commenting <3
Grace
I tried your sour cream pound cake this this past week, it was delicious, just to let you know I added my baking soda to my sour cream and let it sit afterward it was the last thing that I added by stirring it in with a spoon, it was so very moist, I do love to store my cake in a tight sealed container but do to the heat in Fla. I have to store all cakes in the fridge.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Grace! 🙂
Doreen wong
Can I reduce the sugar.
Doreen
Sam
Hi Doreen! I haven’t tried it to know how it will turn out. Let me know how it goes if you do try it. 🙂
MsKay
Very good and moist cake.
Derrick King
Can’t wait to try!!!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We hope you love it, Derrick!
Anita Ledda
Could you use nonfat vanilla yogurt instead?
Sam
Hi Anita! I haven’t tried substituting the vanilla yogurt but it could work. Let me know how it goes if you try it.
Susan
I made a half batch and baked in large muffin tins, used her struesel recipe(that I added cinnamon to and filled a swirl in the middle and the top of muffins. Delicious combination. Will also make a half batch and top with rhubarb sauce in a week or two when our rhubarb is ready.
Joan Barsh
Love your recipe for the pound cake. Can’t wait to bake this
Robin
I have used this recipe for many many years. Two tiny alternatives, I use 1tsp vanilla and 1 tsp almond. I also hand whip my egg whites until super foamy then mix with the battery and bake in a traditional tube pan. You get an amazing crisp top that we all fight over. And in a pinch and no butter on hand you can use margarine and omit the salt.
Victoria
I’ve made this cake three times! My family loves it and are always requesting me to make it. I also add lemon flavor to mine😋😋