Pound cake is rich moist and buttery with a golden-brown crust. To get a cake that is dense and delicate at the same time, you need butter and will beat it together with sugar. Place the cold butter in a stand mixer, add sugar with lemon zest, and then beat on high speed until well combined.
Add eggs one after the other while beating after each addition, pound cake depends on eggs to give the cake a little lift when you need lots of eggs. Add in sour cream which will add an extra level of richness to the cake, add about a third of a cup together with vanilla extract and beat into the batter. For the dry ingredients, you will use two types of flour, all-purpose flour, and cake and pastry flour which has a low protein content and will help contribute to the delicate texture of this cake.
Sift the dry ingredients into batches to the batter and mix on low speed. If you feel you may have over-mixed your batter when adding the flour, all you have to do is set the batter aside for ten minutes, it will relax and when you put it in the pan and bake it will come out ideally. It is important to do the last folding by hand before pouring the batter into your pan so you can get to the bottom of the bowl.
The quantity of flour and sugar can sometimes sit at the bottom and you will get an uneven top to your cake. Get any kind of loaf pan that you have, lightly grease then pour in the batter and level it. Before it goes to the oven give the pan a good tap to get rid of air bubbles that might be trapped in there. Bake this cake in a 325 degrees Fahrenheit oven for 65 to 70 minutes.
You will then want to glaze the cake when still hot, straight from the oven. To make a simply cooked glaze, start with two tablespoons of water in a pan then add three tablespoons of lemon juice also a third of a cup of sugar then bring that to a simmer just until the sugar has fully melted. Take a skewer and randomly poke the cake then pour the syrup onto the cake. Set it aside to cool then slice and enjoy.
Ingredients;
Cake;
- 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter, just cooler than room temperature (60-65 F)
- 1 ½ cups (345 g) sugar
- 1 Tbsp (4 g) finely grated lemon zest
- 5 large eggs, almost at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) sour cream (full-fat)
- 1 ½ tsp (8 mL) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (150 g) all-purpose
- ½ cup (65 g) cake and pastry flour
- ½ tsp (3 g) salt
Glaze;
- 3 Tbsp (45 mL) fresh lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp (30 mL) water
- ⅓ cup (70 g) sugar
Instructions;
Cake;
- Preheat the oven to 325 F and grease a 9-x-5-inch loaf pan.
- Beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest using electric beaters or a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the eggs with a fork and add this to the batter in a few additions, scraping down the bowl in between.
- Stir the sour cream and vanilla together and beat this into the batter.
- In a separate bowl, sift the all-purpose and cake & pastry flour and the salt and add this to the batter, mixing until fully incorporated, scraping to the bottom of the bowl to ensure this.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and tap it a few times to make it level and allow any air bubbles to escape.
- Bake the cake for 65 to 70 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and prepare the glaze while the cake is still warm.
Glaze;
- For the glaze, heat the lemon juice water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Poke holes in the warm pound cake using a bamboo skewer and brush the warm glaze over the cake.
- Let the cake cool completely in the pan (the glaze will set once the cake is cool) before removing it to serve.
