Classic southern sour cream pound cake swirled with fresh strawberry flavor and served with whipped cream and macerated strawberries.
I'm here to put a slight damper on your hot girl summer body plans with this recipe. It's worth any extra time you'll spend in the gym, though! My strawberries & cream pound cake is the summer pound cake recipe to make in 2021 and beyond. It gives you strawberry short cake vibes but with the buttery, dense mouthfeel of a classic pound cake. Serving it with fresh whipped cream is simply a must and macerated strawberries with a hint of almond extract take everything completely over the top. Make this elegant (but easy) strawberry swirl pound cake at your own risk and don't say I didn't warn you. It's that delicious.
If you like unique pound cake ideas, try these, too!
What You'll Need for this Recipe
Pound cake is called such because the recipe uses a pound each of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. Easy to remember, right? This dessert starts with a sour cream pound cake base and takes one swirly yet simple turn. Here are the ingredients you'll need to add to your grocery list to make it.
- Flour
- Sugar
- Butter
- Eggs
- Sour Cream
- Freeze-Dried Strawberries
- Vanilla Extract
- Sea Salt
The fresh strawberry taste in this cake comes from freeze-dried strawberries, which are easy to find at most grocers. I just pulse them in my blender or food processor then stir them into the batter. Using freeze-dried strawberries is a shortcut to fresh strawberry pound cake flavor without anything artificial. I also love that the of the strawberry swirls is a pretty pink whereas when you bake with fresh strawberries, the color tends to change. Check out my strawberry cream cheese sheet cake for a yummy example.
The picture-perfect finishing touches for this dessert are so simple. A dusting of powdered sugar, fresh whipped cream, and a side of sugared strawberries with a hint of almond extract. No frosting or glaze is necessary, which contributes to the strawberry shortcake feels. Show up to the next summer cookout with this baby in tow and you just might be the designated pound cake person from that point forward. That's a big deal in soul food circles.
Tips for Pound Cake Success
- Starting with the tools, make sure you use the right pan. This is my go-to bundt pan that I have baked in over and over again with not a single issue with sticking, whether or not I prep it! After that, my number one tip to keep bundt cakes from sticking, is to grease and flour the pan well. Bake on the middle rack so that the bottom is less likely to burn and, therefore, stick.
- Make sure you soften the cold ingredients to room temperature. This includes the eggs, butter, and sour cream.
- Fluff or sift the flour well before measuring it out into your cake batter. Flour gets packed easily and you can wind up with much more flour than you actually need if you just scoop straight from the bag. Here's a good primer on how to properly measure flour.
- Don't over mix the pound cake batter. This will activate the gluten result and in a tough cake. Stir and scrape your batter bowl until everything is just combined and no dry pockets remain.
Strawberry season is almost upon us so bookmark my strawberries & champagne donut recipe and my fresh strawberry nice cream to make this summer. And sharing is caring so please pin this sour cream pound cake with strawberries on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
How to Make Sour Cream Pound Cake with Strawberry Swirl
Dreamy southern sour cream pound cake with swirls of fresh strawberry, topped with fresh cream, macerated strawberries, and powdered sugar
- 1 ½ ounces freeze-dried strawberries
- 1 cup sour cream at room temperature
- 4 cups flour
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 6 eggs at room temperature
- 1 pound butter softened to room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- powdered sugar sifted
- ½ pint strawberries
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside.
Cream butter in a mixer or food processor until smooth and a slightly lighter shade of yellow. Add eggs, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla extract and continue mixing until uniform.
In another bowl, mix together flour and sea salt. Add dry mixture to wet mixture in two batches and mix until just combined and no dry pockets remain.
Add freeze-dried strawberries to a blender or food processor and pulse until ground into powder. Divide cake batter in half and mix ground strawberries into one half of the batter until it is a uniform bright pink color.
Scoop batter into prepared pan, alternating between plain batter and strawberry batter. Once pan is about halfway full, use a butter knife to swirl the two batters together. Repeat with remaining batter.
Place pan on middle rack of oven and bake for about an hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into multiple parts of the cake comes out clean.
While pound cake bakes, prepare macerated strawberries: Slice strawberries and add to a small bowl, followed by sugar and almond extract. Stir to coat strawberries then set bowl in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Remove cake from oven and let it sit in pan for about 10 minutes then carefully invert it onto a plate to finish cooling to room temperature.
While cake cools, make whipped cream: Add heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract to a bowl and beat at medium-high speed until stiff peaks form (3-4 minutes).
Dust cooled pound cake with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream and macerated strawberries.
Recipe Video
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