Coffee Cake Friday: Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake, Gluten-Free

Greetings!  I want to say thank you to everyone who has been commenting here and emailing me and chatting with me on Twitter.  I love to hear from you about how these recipes are working for you.  And I love getting requests.  I’ve started a folder of the types of recipes people ask me to develop or adapt.  Please know that I pay attention to all of your kind notes and comments and am thrilled that my work is helping people!  That’s music to my ears.  And food for my heart and soul.  Thank you!

That said, I have to let you know: My name is Jeanne and I have a thing for pound cakes.  Seriously.  I may have to join a support group or something.  Now, this is not new to any of you who’ve been following this blog.  This is the 6th pound cake recipe I’ve posted on this site.  I can’t get enough of them.  Today’s pound cake is lemon sour cream.  Delicious!  It’s got such a bright and happy flavor and is incredibly moist.  Just the thing for spring!  It’s also got a more tender crumb than some of the other pound cakes–the amount of eggs it calls for (*cough* 6! *cough*) is responsible for that.  I’m telling you, when you are a recipe developer/tester, having your own egg “store” (chickens) in the backyard is a definite plus!  Now I need to figure out a way to put in a sugar cane field in our backyard (heh).

I adapted this recipe from an old issue of Victoria magazine.  I love Victoria.  It transports me to a different time and place where everything is pretty and we are all sitting in beautiful gardens, drinking tea from delicate china cups.  Sigh.  If you are a fellow Victoria fan, you will know that it stopped publication several years ago.  I truly mourned the loss of it.  Then, like magic, it reappeared a little over a year ago!  My wonderful mother-in-law gifted me with a subscription to it and I’ve been the happy recipient of the bi-monthly issues ever since.  Sigh–happiness.

{A little side note on the subject of my mother-in-law: my mother-in-law lost her father and my husband lost his grandfather last month.  He died peacefully and with family around.  He was in his eighties and still a spry and funny fellow.  He was one of a dying breed: a farmer.  He grew up on a farm and he then ran his own farm as an adult.  By the time I entered the family, he and his wife had retired and had moved to be closer to my mother- and father-in-law.  If you have the inclination to do so, please send some good thoughts my mother-in-law’s way.  She works so very hard to make sure everyone is taken care of and I think good thoughts being sent her way would make a nice blanket of warmth to cover her during this tough time.}

One thing about this recipe–it makes a lot of cake!  I’ve been making it in my trusty 12 cup Bundt pan and it always overflows a few drops onto the oven floor.  Therefore, I put a cookie sheet on the lower rack of the oven to catch the drips.  As I started writing this post, I realize you could also try baking it in a 9″x13″ cake pan or in 2 9″x5″ loaf pans.  I haven’t done that yet, so I can’t tell you the baking time, but please feel free to experiment and use different types of baking pans on this.  The only thing that will change will be the baking time.

Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake, Gluten-Free
-adapted from Victoria magazine

Special Equipment Needed
-a stand mixer is really helpful, but a hand mixer will do
-a 12 C bundt pan

Note: This recipe uses my gluten-free flour mix:
Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix (mix together and store in fridge):
1 1/4 C. brown rice flour
1 1/4 C. white rice flour
1 C. tapioca flour
1 C. sweet rice flour (also known as Mochiko)
2 scant tsp. xanthan gum
(you can also use the gluten-free flour mixture (not baking mix) of your choice–just be sure it contains xanthan gum. Or, you can add 1/4 tsp. xanthan gum per cup of gluten-free flour. If you use bean flour, it will add a bean taste to the cake)

Ingredients
3 C Jeanne’s Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Mix
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C (2 sticks, 1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
3 C sugar
6 large or extra large eggs, separated
1 C sour cream (you can also use plain yogurt.  I’ve even used vanilla yogurt–just reduce the vanilla extract to 1 tsp if you use this)
3 TBL lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla extract
melted butter and extra tapioca flour for the pan

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Using the extra melted butter and tapioca flour, butter and flour your pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat your butter until it’s light and fluffy–about 4 minutes.  Add the sugar, and beat some more.  Add the egg yolks, one at a time, and beat thoroughly after each addition.  Add the sour cream, and beat some more.  Add the lemon zest and vanilla extra and beat to combine.

Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

In a separate large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter.  Pour the batter into your prepared pan.  Thump once on the counter to release any trapped air bubbles.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes (or until tester comes out clean).  In my experience, there is always a drop or two of batter that overflows the pan.  Therefore, I place a cookie sheet on the oven rack below the rack the cake is on to catch any drips.  This will save clean-up time later.

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!
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