Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake

How nice to use up my expiring sour cream and a glut of in-season lemons. This is the reason why I like recipes in website that's got reader reviews. You cannot go wrong with a highly rated one with hundreds of reviewers like this keeper of a recipe from my favourite Epicurious website. My daughter and I thought we were going to have a great big mound of a lemon-flavoured pound cake with most of it going to waste. Thankfully we were wrong. We love it to bits so much so that we actually finished it a couple of days later.


Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake

3 cups cake flour (or plain flour)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/2 tsp fine salt
1 cup unsalted butter - softened at room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs - room temperature
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp grated lemon peel
1 cup sour cream

*Glaze:
2 cups icing sugar (confectioner's) - sifted
2 Tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 160°C/fan 140°C/325°F. Grease 10-inch tube or bundt pan. Dust pan with flour; tap out excess flour.
2. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl - combine well.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until fluffy.
4. Gradually add sugar and beat 5 minutes.
5. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating just until combined after each addition.
6. Beat in lemon juice and peel.
7. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture.
8. Mix in the sour cream. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
9. Bake cake until skewer inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 30 minutes.
10. Let cake cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Turn out cake onto a rack.
11. Carefully turn cake right side up on rack (if using tube pan) and cool completely. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature.)

*For the glaze:

1. Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice. If it's too thick, add water a little at a time to get a pouring consistency.
2. Once cake is completely cool, drizzle with the lemon glaze.