Marbled Sour Cream Pound Cake
A marble bundt cake has both chocolate and vanilla pound cake batter layered together to make a two-toned, perfectly moist and classic sour cream pound cake.
Recipe Origins
To get a moist pound cake you need to use the good fats, hence sour cream pound cake. Butter is a given, but adding sour cream will make for a richer, super moist and tender cake. In my experience, a sour cream pound cake is far and wide better than one made with milk or even heavy cream because it leads to a moist, melt-in-your-mouth bite.
Also similar to the blood orange pound cake, I use cake flour here too; the fine mill of cake flour and the added starch to it make for a tight, tender crumb. This is the way to get that iconic pound cake texture just so.
Details on getting the ‘Marbled’ look
I was aiming for more of a ‘zebra’ like cake, which I still believe is possible but you’ll need to layer your alternate batters more thinly than I’ve done here. It’s such a striking cake as it is though, even with just 3-5 layers it will turn out absolutely gorgeous. There is something rather special about a classic marble cake, or any swirled cake, it’s eye-catching but also it gets you excited about each bite knowing it will have two different flavors.
My cake didn’t rise
After receiving many comments like this, I recently added a leavening agent to the recipe although traditionally pound cakes don’t have any as they rely on the aeration of the batter for volume. Sufficiently creaming the batter and whipping the eggs for as long as needed will give you a traditional rise, which is honestly very little. That’s the beauty of a pound cake – a tight crumb! They aren’t meant to be fluffy. That said, you now have a teaspoon of baking powder in the batter to just help the cake along, if needed.
My cake is raw in the middle
This might happen if the cake pan was too small (less than 10 cups) or if the cake was taken out too early. If you are finding that the cake is over-browning but a cake tester is still coming out with liquid then cover it with foil and allow it to continue to bake until the tester comes out clean.
Ingredients
Marble Pound Cake
- 300g or 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 339g or 1 ½ cups unsalted butter softened
- 1 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 5 large eggs
- ⅓ cup full fat sour cream
- 150g or 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (for the vanilla batter)
- 65g or ½ cup cake flour (for the chocolate batter)
- 50g or ⅓ cup dutch process cocoa powder
Chocolate Glaze
- 1 cup organic powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- Pinch fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons milk
- Flaked sea salt for topping
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan.
If your eggs aren’t at room temp, set them in a bowl of warm water.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, salt, powder and vanilla for a full 10 minutes, the mixture should be very light and fluffy.
With the mixer on low, one by one add the eggs, allowing time for each to fully incorporate before adding another.
Add the sour cream and beat to combine.
Divide batter in half (use a scale if you have it, it'll be around 500g for each half).
To one half sift in ½ cup cake flour and cocoa. To the other half sift in 1 cup flour and 2 tablespoons of cake flour.
Layer the batter into the bundt pan, alternating between the chocolate and the plain (you should get about 3 layers from each for a total of 6-7 layers, extras can be added on top).
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until you can press the top and it feels firm, or use a cake tester.
Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then overturn onto a cooling rack.
Once completely cool, make the glaze by whisking all the ingredients together. If the glaze is thick, add a bit more milk, if it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar (or cocoa).
Spoon glaze on top of bundt and sprinkle with flaked sea salt.
