This old-fashioned sour cream cake has a beautiful golden sweet crust and is soft but dense on the inside. And the mix of vanilla and almond flavors is to die for!
Happy (almost) July 4th!! This weekend means good food, time with friends and family, and of course, fireworks ! We start the festivities with a few slices of this old-fashioned sour cream pound cake. Once you’ve eaten this cake, you’ll also want our vanilla pound cake, pistachio pound cake and cranberry orange pound cake!
Our favorite sour cream pound cake.
It’s a family recipe from my husband’s side of the family, and it’s a recipe I absolutely love! My mother-in-law makes this pound cake all the time… and for good reason! It has a beautiful sweet golden crust, and it’s soft but dense on the inside. And the mix of vanilla and almond flavors is to die for!
And if you’re curious as to why it’s called a pound cake (because I always thought it was a funny name for a cake!), it’s because it was made with one pound of flour, one pound of sugar, one pound of eggs and one pound of butter! No wonder I LOVE this cake so much 😉
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
Category : Dessert
Yield: 12 servings
A lady gave this recipe to my mother in 1953 and it has been a family favorite ever since.
Ingredients
3 cups of sugar
1 cup of butter
6 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons of vanilla
1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
3 cups all-purpose flour, sieve before measuring
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Instructions
Cream the sugar and butter, add the egg yolks one by one, and beat well after each addition. Mix the vanilla, lemon juice and fresh cream.
In another bowl, sift the flour, salt and soda. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the dough; beat well. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Beat the egg whites into the cake batter. Pour into a greased and floured tubular pan and bake at 300° for about 1.5 hours or until the cake is ready.
Question: You mention almond flavor a couple of times but this recipe has lemon and not almond. Is this a typo or do you substitute the almond? If so, is it equal amount to the lemon juice? We are not crazy about lemon cake but do like the almond. Please help as I want to bake this soon!
You can use Almond and vanila . I prefer it
I would say having a similar recipe like this that I have been making for a while & it calls for almond extract and vanilla extract.If you don’t like lemon leave it out & for the almond use extract like a teaspoon because almond extract is really powerful. Hope this helps.
It Lso says fresh crea. In the recipe a d sour cream ..which one is right?
My recipe calls for 1 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp almond extract but not lemon. Also, it’s sour cream, not heavy cream. My mother and grandmother made this same recipe , so it’s been handed down for years.
I soooooooooooo love pound cake……..have you by chance ever tried using a Gluten Free flour to make this…………..I miis real food so much!
me too…and most gf flours don’t have the same texture. + you have to change amounts of salt & sugar to get the taste close. I found dassava flour to be a tad better than rice flour but still not exactly same. Another option (if you are only gluten intolerant, rather than the potentially fatal absolutely cannot have it, is to find a trusted source for einkorn (ancient) wheat that has much less gluten in it. (of course then you need more bak8ng powder & eggs or it will be flat & crumbly)
Is it sour cream or fresh cream?
SOUR CREAM
It is sour cream
Perhaps,…THIS TO SUGGEST NEWLY PURCHASED, SOUR CREAM⁉️😳
says beat egg whites into batter or should it be fold egg whites into batter
I just made this cake I’m looking forward to it Recipe looks great
I’ll keep in touch
No baking powder???
Can you use baking powder instead of baking soda.
I have seen whipping cream used in pound cakes. What’s the difference?
Whipping cream pound cakes are delicious. The original recipe is on the back of Swans Down Cake Flour Box.
It will be made often because I love Pound cakes
Do you have to use a tube pan?
I am curious too. Angel food tube pan, or a large bundt cake tube pan??
Lemon is better than almond in some recipes.
Do you preheat the oven or put in a cold oven?
I fold the beaten egg whitesinto the batter. I don”t care for lemon. You really can’t taste it. It more so balance out all the other flavors. I’ve made this six times and it has came out very moist and delicious 😋 Did I mention PERFECT EVERY TIME❣❣❣💞
It’s in the oven baking. Wanted to make it all weekend and finally had time. It went together easily. Looking forward to tasting it.
This cake is delicious will make it again
Try adding a teaspoon of butter flavor ! It’s amazing !
Sour cream
Do I beat the egg whites with a beater & add sugar to the egg whites then put in with mix
My Mom always used 1pound of each, flour, butter, eggs and sugar and sour cream.
2 tablespoons vanilla flavoring
2 tablespoons lemon, butter or almond flavoring
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons of table salt
Cream butter and sugar until ALL sugar is melted takes about 12mins in a stand mixer.
Add whipped eggs a little at a time to creamed mixture.
Mix flour, baking powder, salt together is a separate bowl, set aside.
Add flavoring to sour cream, stir until combined.
Add flour mixture and sour cream mixture alternating between the two until the mixtures are all in and fully incorporated into batter.
Butter and flour a bunt pan, add batter, tap it several times on counter to get the bubbles out. Mom always covered for 30mins before baking.
What is the oven temp?
says 300 degrees for 1.5 hours
this baker is just giving the way she makes, respect that and lets not compare it to our mothers do your thing
1/4 tsp of salt?
Use salted or unsalted butter?
Recipe a tad bit confusing
POUND of Butter is usually 4 sticks…..recipe says 1 stick….
Recipe calls for one cup which would be 2 sticks. One stick is 1/2 cup.
No recipe say 1 cup butter in which that’s 2 sticks.
you can substitute any flavor in a pound cake for whatever flavor you want if you got you a good pound cake recipe whatever flavor you want to use you can substitute any flavor you want to use like vanilla rum whatever flavor you desire to use why make it so hard
If using whole cream, then lemon juice would be needed for the acidic rising properties. If using “sour” cream, then any extracts can be used because the sour cream contains the acid needed to make it rise. I use both lemon juice and lemon extract with sour cream, in my cake. Use lemon juice and powdered sugar for a glaze on top. We love the lemon flavor.
I love this recipe. But how do I get my poundcake to come out flat on the top and the bottom. How do I get it to look like you’re photo . My pan makes the top of the cake rounded not flat?