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orange sour cream pound cake
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Orange Pound Cake

Pillowy pound cake with a moist crumb, studded with orange zest and pooled in orange glaze.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings 10

Equipment

  • bundt pan
  • stand mixer or hand mixer

Ingredients

Pound Cake

  • 226g or 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 220g or 1 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • Zest of 4 blood oranges
  • 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste
  • 190g or 1 ½ cups cake flour
  • 60g ¼ cup sour cream
  • ¾ tsp baking powder* (optional, helps the cake rise higher)

Glaze

  • 1 cup organic powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons orange juice *the color of the glaze will vary depending on the color of your oranges, very dark blood oranges will yield a bright pink glaze
  • Additional toppings:
  • Crushed freeze dried raspberries
  • Orange zest

Instructions

  • If your eggs are not at room temperature, set them in a bowl of warm water now.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare a loaf pan or a 10 cup bundt pan with flour & butter or with a baking spray (I prefer the latter).
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugar, zest, vanilla and salt. Beat for about 7 minutes, this mixture should be VERY light and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs, one at a time beating for at least a minute before adding another.
  • Sift the cake flour over the batter and add baking powder. Add the sour cream on top. Cover the stand mixer with a tea towel (if yours is the kind that spills) and turn the mixer on low. Beat until the flour is just incorporated.
  • Pour batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for about 35-45 minutes, until you can touch the top of the cake and it springs back.
  • Let the cake cool for a few minutes in the pan then turn it upside down and transfer it to a plate or cooling rack.
  • Once it’s completely cool, make the glaze by mixing together the powdered sugar and blood orange juice: use more powdered sugar to make it thicker, more juice to thin it out.
  • Store in an airtight container. If making ahead of time, wait until the day of serving to make and add the glaze.

Notes

You can bake this in a bundt pan (small or large, in a large one it will come out quite short), or in a loaf pan. In a loaf pan the cake will need to bake for at least 50 minutes and will brown quite a bit on top - tint with foil if you don't want it too dark. 
The recipe includes an option for using chemical leavening. Traditional pound cake does not use baking soda or powder and results in a dense, very tight crumb. I've recently given the option for it here in light of many comments voicing disappointment their cakes didn't rise as expected.