Lemon Sour Cream Cake with Raspberries

A soft, spongy lemon sour cream cake with fresh raspberries. This cake is light and tangy, with a pound cake like texture. A great cake for a afternoon tea party, office pot luck or any occasions that can be celebrated with cake!  

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Why We Love This Recipe

Then this lemon sour cream cake won’t disappoint. I love cakes that are light and fluffy, and are super flavourful and this lemon cake is one of those ‘won’t stop at one slice’ kinda cake! It’s perfectly light and tangy, with a subtle sweetness to cut through the raspberry and lemon flavours.

My lemon sour cream cake is;

• light and tangy without being overly sweet
• a great way to use up leftover sour cream
• so ridiculously easy to make
• one bowl, one oven tray meaning less mess to worry about
• perfect for an afternoon tea, school lunchbox or office treat.

Recipe Ingredients

Butter – You’ll need 125g of unsalted butter at room temperature. I always use good quality butter in my baking. 125g is around 4.5 ounces, or a bit over a stick of butter if you’re in the US. It’s always best to weight your ingredients when you’re baking so I recommend getting a set of digital scales that convert between metric and imperial.

Sugar – I prefer using caster sugar, which is essentially super fine sugar. It’s great in baking because it doesn’t leave a granulated texture that regular white sugar can. If you can’t find it, regular sugar is good.

Plan All Purpose Flour –I use plain all purpose flour for this recipe, and baking powder. The baking powder will add height and plumpness to your cake. The flour and baking powder will need to be sifted first.

Sour Cream – Sour cream makes this cake really moist and brings a beautiful tangy flavour that matches really well with the lemon flavour. The sour cream adds moisture without thinning out the cake batter, leaving you with a gorgeous dense (but still light) cake.

Eggs – Like all baking projects, using good quality eggs are a must. I use Sunnyvale Free Range eggs that are the extra large (700g/25oz) weight. This is approximately 60g per egg!

Lemon Zest – Fresh lemon is the key here as you are using lemon rind. I find I can get a tablespoon of lemon rind out of one large lemon.

Raspberries – You can either use fresh or frozen raspberries for this lemon sour cream cake. I prefer to use fresh raspberries because they are easier to place in the cake and look nicer but either is fine. If using fresh, you’ll need around a 125g punnet (6oz punnet in the US). If using frozen you’ll need around ½ a cup of frozen berries.

Is this lemon cake easy to make?

Short answer – yes! It’s one of the easiest cakes I know how to make. Why? Because it’s only one bowl, and requires a few simple ingredients that are all found in supermarket shelves!

Step By Step Instructions

See the recipe card for full details further down this post.

Step 1 – Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a bowl together. This releases all the gorgeous lemon oil flavour into the mixture.

Step 2 – Add in the eggs, then add in the sifted flour and baking powder.

Step 3 – Fold through the sour cream, then pour into a prepared pan and scatter over the raspberries.

Step 4 – Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes or until lightly golden on top.

What equipment do I need?

To make this cake you’ll need;

• a stand mixer or hand held mixer
• a large bowl (if using a hand help mixer or use your stand mixer bowl)
• measuring cups (Australian standard or American)
• digital scales that convert from grams to ounces
• a 25.5cm/10″, square baking dish (glass or aluminium)
• baking paper to line your baking dish
• spatula for smoothing the cake surface

FAQ and Tips

Can I Substitute Sour Cream

I have used plain greek yogurt as a substitute before with similar results, but I do prefer to use sour cream. Greek yogurt makes a great substitute if you’re looking to lighten up the cake calorie wise.

How Long Does it Take to Bake?

Like all baking, this is oven dependent. In a fan forced oven this should take about 30 minutes to bake at 180C/350F. The best way of testing to see if it’s cooked is to stick. a metal skewer or knife into the centre of the cake. If it comes out with a little crumb on it, the cake is cooked.

I also go by smell, and how brown the edges are. If you’re finding it browning too quickly you can put some aluminium foil over the cake to stop it from browning too quickly.

Does This Cake Need a Glaze?

The cake doesn’t need a glaze. You can always dust some icing sugar (powdered sugar) over the top of it. The raspberries bring out another element of flavour and the cake is sweet enough without a glaze.

How Do I Store This Cake?

This cake is best eaten within a few days. I found it doesn’t dry out, but can get a little sticky on top. Store in an air tight container for max freshness, but in all honestly, this cake is so good it won’t hang around for long!

This raspberry lemon sour cream cake is so, so SO good. It’s light and creamy, zesty with just a hint of sweetness. The addition of the sour cream makes the batter so smooth and it’s just a really, really good cake that works every time!

A great cake for any occasions whether it’s a family-do, work morning tea, a time that you need to use up leftover sour cream or just want cake!

Much Love,

Georgie x x 

Got leftover sour cream? Try these recipes;

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