Butter: For the best sour cream pound cake, choose an unsalted, high-quality butter. These are our Test Kitchen’s picks for the best butter brands.
Sugar: In pound cake recipes, sugar locks in moisture and inhibits the development of gluten for an ultra-soft and tender crumb.
Flour: All-purpose flour is the best type of flour for a dense, buttery pound cake like this. Cake flour produces a very light and tender crumb, which is lovely in many cakes but not quite right for pound cakes.
Eggs: Egg whites provide structure and stability to a cake, so it doesn’t collapse after baking. Egg yolks lend the batter extra fat, which helps keep the cake moist and tender. There are myriad reasons why you should bake room-temperature eggs.
Sour Cream: Choose a full-fat sour cream for best results. Since sour cream’s whole purpose in this recipe is to add extra fat, you won’t get the same texture with fat-free or low-fat sour cream. If you’re up for an experiment, you could try one of these substitutes for sour cream, too.
Baking Powder: The added fat and moisture in this recipe make the batter heavier than that of traditional pound cakes. A dash of baking powder (vs. baking soda) gives the cake a helping hand in the oven, allowing it to rise and prevent it from being too dense.
Vanilla: Just a whisper of vanilla extra goes a long way to give this luscious sour cream pound cake a pleasing flavor and aroma. Choose the best vanilla or make homemade vanilla extract.
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