Soft, flavourful, and filled with citrus, this lemon sour cream bundt cake is easy to whip up but looks so impressive baked in a pretty bundt pan. While butter cakes tend to be more flavourful than those made with oil, one of the common pitfalls is that they can be a bit more dry. Adding sour cream to this cake makes it moist, adds even more flavour, and results in an even lighter crumb.
If you prefer an oil-based cake, try this lemon olive oil cake instead – it's baked in a bundt tin too, and just as delicious as this butter version. Try serving this with homemade lemon curd for an extra citrus boost, and if you have lots of lemons to use up, you might like a lemon chess pie too.
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Ingredients
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Lemons: choose organic unwaxed lemons if possible as you will be using the zest. Wash them well before use.
- Sour cream: this must be full-fat sour cream for the best results. A really thick Greek-style yogurt can probably be substituted but we haven't tested it.
- Eggs: make sure the eggs are at room temperature. To quickly warm up cold eggs, submerge them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before use.
Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.
Method
Step 1: mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Step 2: zest the lemons into a large mixing bowl.
Step 3: mix with the sugar.
Step 4: cream the butter and lemon sugar mixture.
Step 5: add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.
Step 6: mix in the lemon juice and sour cream.
Step 7: gently mix in the flour mixture until just combined, then transfer to a bundt pan.
Step 8: bake until lightly golden and cool fully before glazing.
Top Tips
- Use room temperature ingredients: if the eggs in particular are cold, they'll cause the batter to split when they're mixed in with the butter and sugar. It's not a big deal and the cake will be fine, but it is harder to mix when it's badly split.
- Coat the pan well: a new bundt pan probably won't have sticking problems, but make sure you grease every nook and cranny. That's why we recommend greasing with melted butter. It's more effective for highly decorative cake tins. If you know yours is on the sticky side, add a light dusting of flour after greasing too.
- Baking soda is normal: this cake recipe calls for more baking soda than baking powder, and that's not an error. Baking soda reacts with acid, causing greater lift, and this is a lemon sour cream cake.
Recipe Notes
You can see in the step-by-step photos above that the cake batter did split a little bit (note the texture in step 5 is a bit grainy, that's splitting). Don't worry if it does – it'll come back together once the flour is mixed in. To prevent it you'd have to use all room-temperature ingredients and no one really wants to leave sour cream out to warm up.
How to Store
Storage: if you want to keep it for more than a couple of days, don't add the glaze and keep it in a sealed container for 3-4 days. If glazed, loosely cover the cake with aluminum foil (or a cake dome, if you have one) and make sure not to touch the glaze. Keep at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Freezing: don't add the glaze. Transfer the fully cooled cake to an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months, then thaw at room temperature and glaze before serving.
If you make this Lemon Sour Cream Cake recipe or any other cake recipes on the Baked Collective, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more baking, follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Lemon Sour Cream Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
- Mixing bowl
- Hand or stand mixer
- 10-cup bundt pan
- Wire rack
Ingredients
For The Lemon Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 medium lemons
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup salted butter plus extra for greasing the pan
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups sour cream full-fat
For The Lemon Glaze
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar also called icing sugar or confectioner's sugar
- 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice freshly squeezed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325ºF (160ºC). Lightly grease a 10-cup Bundt pan with melted butter.
- Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a mixing bowl. Whisk well to combine. Set aside.3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- Zest the lemons directly into a mixing bowl. Juice the lemons into a separate vessel. You should have between ⅓ and ½ cup lemon juice.2 medium lemons
- Add the sugar to the mixing bowl with the lemon zest. Mix on low-medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes with a paddle attachment to infuse the sugar with the zest.2 cups granulated sugar
- Add the butter to the bowl. Beat at medium-high speed until well combined, about 2 minutes.1 cup salted butter
- With the mixer running, add the eggs one at a time, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl between each addition.4 large eggs
- Add the sour cream and lemon juice. Mix well to combine, about 1 minute. The mixture may look slightly curdled, but this is normal.1 ½ cups sour cream
- With the mixer running at low speed, add the flour mixture to the bowl, about ½ cup at a time, until gone. Stop the mixer when the flour has just been combined.
- Spoon a layer of batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Gently press the batter down into the pan to fill any decorative crevices. Finish with the remaining batter, smoothing the top with a spatula, before placing it in the oven for 55 to 60 minutes.
- Once baked, transfer the Bundt pan to a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning the cake out directly onto the rack to cool completely.
- Mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice into a smooth icing and drizzle over the cake before slicing and serving.1 ½ cups powdered sugar, 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice