Moist Lemon-Blueberry Sour Cream Pound Cake

The combination of tart lemons and plump fresh blueberries is a match made in dessert heaven, and this lemon-blueberry sour cream pound cake brings them together in perfect harmony.

The addition of sour cream makes the cake so soft and tender, but what truly sets this lemon-blueberry pound cake recipe apart is the crackly lemon sugar top. It's such a special finishing touch, adding an irresistible sweet-tart crunch I just know you're going to love!

If you've made my old fashioned vanilla pound cake or strawberry pound cake this recipe will feel very familiar to you. I used both of them as a base, with a few modifications to help support the weight from the added fresh blueberries.

Between the cake batter and the sugar topping there's zest from two whole lemons in this pound cake. The lemon flavor is so bright and fresh, absolutely in your face and don't you forget it.

While traditional pound cakes use just four core incredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar, the addition of full fat sour cream is the not-so-secret ingredient that makes this blueberry pound cake extra soft and moist.

The lemon and blueberry flavors may be robust, but the cake itself is surprisingly delicate!

The lemon sugar topping was inspired by my favorite lemon-blueberry mini muffins and contrasts so nicely with the softness of the cake. Blueberry muffin cake? Yes please.

Like all my best cake recipes, this lemon-blueberry pound cake is so good served with a scoop of ice cream or macerated fresh berries and whipped cream. But honestly, I mostly eat it plain. It has such a lovely soft texture, bursts of sweetness from the fresh blueberries, and sparkling lemon sugar top — it really doesn't need anything extra!

Keeping Blueberries from Sinking

To keep the blueberries from sinking in a blueberry pound cake, we're going to use a special technique known as not mixing them into the batter right away. (It's exactly what it sounds like.)

Basically, you'll make the lemon pound cake batter and measure a portion of it into the loaf pan without any blueberries in it. Then, you'll mix the blueberries into the remaining batter and add it on top of the plain lemon cake batter.

The blueberries will always sink a little bit as the cake bakes, but that inch-deep layer of plain lemon cake batter at the bottom is a bit of insulation, keeping them from all ending up there.

Ingredient Notes

Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make this lemon-blueberry pound cake recipe! See recipe card for quantities.

• Lemon Zest - This lemon-blueberry pound cake recipe uses the zest of two whole lemons. One and a half lemons are zested into the cake batter, and the remaining half lemon is zested to make the lemon sugar topping.
• Unsalted Butter - This recipe uses unsalted American-style butter (e.g. not European butter like Kerrygold). If using a salted butter, cut the amount of salt in the recipe in half.
• Sugar - Plain old regular granulated white sugar.
• Eggs - This recipe uses large eggs. Extra large eggs will also work.
• Flour - Regular all purpose flour. Gluten free cup-for-cup all purpose flours should also work, but I haven't personally tested them.
• Sour Cream - Full fat sour cream (or full fat plain Greek yogurt) adds a ton of moisture and makes this cake very soft and tender.
• Salt - I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt which half as salty as other brands. If measuring by weight, it doesn't matter what brand of salt you use. But if you're measuring by volume and using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, cut the amount of salt in half.
• Baking Powder - Double acting baking powder helps ensure this cake rises and can support the weight of the blueberries. It also helps it develop the soft, fluffy texture.
• Baking Soda - A small amount of baking soda gives this cake just a little more rising energy against the weight of the blueberries and all the added fat from the sour cream.
• Blueberries - Fresh blueberries! This is a great way to use up slightly wrinkled berries. Pick through the berries to remove any stems before use!

• Bring the butter to room temperature. Let the butter sit out at room temperature (70°F) for an hour or two prior to baking. If you need to speed this process up, microwave the wrapped sticks of butter for about 4 seconds per side. The butter should still feel slightly cool to the touch but and soft enough to press a finger into, but not so soft that it's greasy or melty — you're looking for a temperature of about 65°F.
• Bring the eggs to room temperature. Submerge the eggs in very hot water for about 10-15 minutes prior to mixing. This helps them incorporate into the cake batter easily and will allow your cake to rise. If they're cold when you add them to the butter and sugar, they'll cool down the butter, causing the batter to break and separate.
• Mix the dry ingredients together. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.

How to Make Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake

Just like most of my other cake recipes, this lemon-blueberry pound cake uses the creaming method of mixing. I wrote a lot more about the creaming method in detail in my vanilla pound cake recipe and I do recommend popping over there to read about it if you're a beginner baker.

Being patient during the first step of creaming the butter and sugar together is particularly important for giving your cake a soft, fluffy texture and enough rising power to lift all the fresh blueberries we're going to add.

When properly creamed together, the butter and sugar mixture will be pale yellow, light, and fluffy. If you rub it between your fingers the sugar granules should be almost entirely dissolved but still feel slightly gritty.

The next step is to add the eggs without collapsing all the air we just worked into the butter. We do this by adding them one at a time and giving the butter plenty of time to incorporate each egg (about 45-60 seconds) before adding the next one.

Scrape down the bowl and beater before adding each egg, and then again before you move on to the next step.

The final step is to alternate adding the dry ingredients and sour cream on the lowest speed possible. Using a low speed for this final step prevents over mixing and ensures your cake has a moist, tender texture.

Repeat with the remaining dry ingredients and sour cream, adding one third of the dry ingredients followed by the remaining half of the sour cream and the final third of the dry ingredients.

Don't worry about being super precise with what "one third" and "one half" is here. The goal is just to not overwhelm the batter with too many dry ingredients at once or too much liquid and fat at once.

I know this can sound overwhelming but it's quite simple, I promise. You're basically alternating adding dry --> wet -- > dry -->. wet --> dry, mixing on low speed just until combined and scraping down the bowl between each addition.

Stop the mixer when there are a few streaks of flour left in the bowl. You'll finish mixing those in by hand when you scrape down the beater and sides of the bowl. This also helps prevent over mixing!

Use a mini offset spatula to smooth the batter out, pressing it down into the corners of the pan to press out any air bubbles.

Take care not to push the blueberries all to the bottom of the pan as you go — you want to see some of them at the surface!

Pressing the cake batter down into the pan is important for pressing out any air bubbles that might be hiding inside. Smoothing out the top helps the cake bake evenly.

Lemon Sugar Cake Topping

Before you bake this lemon-blueberry pound cake, it's time to add the blueberry muffin inspired lemon sugar topping. This is non-negotiable, imo. It is so good you really don't want to skip it.

Bake the cake at 350°F for 60-65 minutes, until a toothpick or small knife inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it. You're looking for an internal temperature of 200°-209°F.

Let the lemon-blueberry muffin cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about 15-20 minutes. Then run a knife around any sides of the pan without parchment paper and use the parchment sling to lift it out and onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

This cake is so soft and tender, you really do want it to be completely cool so the starches have time to set before you slice it or else it will fall apart.

Your moist lemon-blueberry pound cake is now ready to serve!

Suggested Equipment

Here's the equipment I use to make this lemon-blueberry pound cake. You don't need to have all of these same tools, but they may make the process easier!

• Electric Mixer - I use a KitchenAid stand mixer with the paddle attachment. An electric hand mixer will also work — the creaming stage may just take a little longer.
• 1 Pound Loaf Pan - A "1 pound" loaf pan is approximately 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 3 inches tall. A 1.25 pound loaf pan (9x5x3) will also work but your cake may not have the same height that mine does in these photos as there's more room for the batter to spread out. Metal pans work best for getting that golden brown crust. You may need to adjust baking time and temperature if using a glass pan (King Arthur Baking recommends lowering the temperature by 25°F and adding 10 minutes to the bake time).
• Quarter Pan Pre-Cut Parchment Sheets - I use these pre-cut parchment sheets to create a parchment sling that lines the pan to make the pound cake easier to remove. You'll have to trim about an inch off one of the long sides for it to fit, but they work very nicely!
• Metal Binder Clips - To secure the parchment paper in place so it doesn't fold in on top of the cake in the oven. Do not use plastic binder clips in the oven. I repeat, no plastic in the oven.
• Mini Offset Spatula - For smoothing out the cake batter in the pan. Trust me, you'll think a regular spatula or a knife can do the same job, but once you try using a mini offset spatula, there's no going back.

Storage Notes & Freezing

This lemon-blueberry pound cake can be stored at room temperature with an airtight cover for 4-5 days. You can also refrigerate it in an airtight container for up to a week.

The pound cake itself can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge, and let come to room temperature for serving.

Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

• If the cake batter begins to look split or curdled as you're adding the eggs, don't sweat it too much. It will come back together when you add the flour.
• When in doubt, SCRAPE DOWN THE BOWL. If it feels like you're stopping too often to scrape down the bowl, that means you're doing it right. You don't want any ingredients to go unincorporated or you'll end up with large air bubbles or clumps in your final cake.
• Mixing the dry ingredients on the lowest possible speed and stopping as soon as they're all combined is super important. The goal is to avoid developing gluten in the cake batter, which would make your blueberry pound cake dense and tough, with lots of trapped tunnels of air bubbles inside.
• To keep the cake from sticking to the pan, spray the pan with non stick spray, then line with a parchment paper sling. The non-stick spray helps the paper stick to the walls of the pan. I use metal binder clips to help hold the paper in place, but this is optional.
• If you don't have parchment paper you can grease and flour the pan by spraying it with nonstick spray or a paper towel with a bit of olive oil on it. Add about a tablespoon of flour into the pan and tap, tilt, and rotate the pan over the sink until the flour evenly coats all the sides of the pan.
• Make sure your baking powder is fresh! If you aren't sure, it's probably not. Baking powder is good for about 6 months, after that it loses its potency. To check if it's still good, Epicurious recommends mixing 1 cup very hot tap water with 2 teaspoons baking powder: "If there’s an immediate fizzing reaction that dissipates all of the powder, you’ll know it still works. If there’s no bubbling, the baking powder is no longer potent and needs to be swapped out."

Why Temperatures Matter

Make sure you pay attention to the temperature directions in this pound cake recipe. If your ingredients aren't at the right temperature the cake may not rise properly!

• If your butter is too warm, it won't incorporate enough air. If the butter is too cold, it will take much longer to cream properly.
• If you use cold eggs, they will cause the butter to firm up in the mixer and you risk it curdling or splitting, resulting in a flat, dense, tough cake.
• If your oven runs hot or runs cold, this can affect the cake's rise, the thickness of the crust, the texture, and the baking time. I recommend using an oven thermometer to make sure you're baking it at the right temperature!

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