About This Tangerine Sour Cream Bundt Cake
This tangerine sour cream bundt cake is extra moist and flavorful thanks to a cake soak and glaze! Both the cake soak and glaze are made with fresh squeezed tangerine juice, infusing the cake with bright and zesty tangerine flavor. The bundt cake base has a plush and buttery crumb. The recipe is based on a traditional pound cake recipe with some sour cream to make it tangy and moist.
For more delicious, homemade bundt cake recipes on Hummingbird High, check out my site’s Bundt Cake Recipe collection! Popular recipes include this Tom Cruise Coconut Bundt Cake (Copycat Doan’s Bakery Recipe) and this Banana Pudding Bundt Cake From Scratch (No Cake Mix!).
The recipe is adapted from one of my favorite baking cookbooks, Sweet by Valerie Gordon. Valerie owns a famous bakery and candy shop in Los Angeles; this book has the recipes for many of the desserts and confectionaries you can buy there!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make this unique citrus bundt cake recipe, let’s talk about some key ingredients and potential substitutions:
Sources, Recommendations, and Substitutions
- Nonstick Baking Spray: Nonstick baking spray is similar to nonstick cooking spray. However, it typically includes flour mixed into the fat/oil of the spray. The flour helps prevents baked goods from sticking in detailed bundt pans. I like Bak-Klene ZT All Purpose Release Spray. Avoid using a baking spray made with butter, coconut oil, or shortening. While testing the recipe, I found that these alternatives didn’t release the bundt cake as easily!
- All-Purpose Flour. You can use a 1-1 gluten free all purpose flour replacer to make the recipe gluten free. I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour or King Arthur Flour Gluten Free All Purpose Flour.
- Kosher Salt: I know from years of recipe testing that kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes. But you can replace the kosher salt in the recipe with table salt. Just use half the amount listed in the recipe when you do!
- Sour Cream. In my test kitchen, I found that sour cream made the most flavorful tangerine sour cream bundt cake. But in a pinch, other ingredients like full-fat Greek yogurt or full-fat unsweetened plain yogurt worked too. Just make sure to use full-fat! Low-fat or no-fat yogurt made drier bundt cakes.
Do you really need tangerines to make this bundt cake recipe?
No! I used tangerines because it was what was seasonally available. In a pinch, you can substitute other citrus like other oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, and more!
Best Recipe Tip
Traditionally, classic pound cake contains a pound of its four main ingredients: flour, butter, eggs and sugar. Although this recipe doesn’t quite follow that ratio, it comes pretty close. This means that the cake can end up too heavy and brick-like if its batter isn’t creamed properly. It’s pretty important that you follow the recipe’s instructions and cream the sugar and butter together on high speed for a minimum of 5 minutes, preferably the full 7 minutes.
Creaming is the process of creating air bubbles in the cake batter, and those air bubbles are what makes cake light and fluffy in the end. If you don’t cream this recipe well and then proceed to add the soak to the cake, you’ll end up with a sad, heavy cake. Just be careful not to overmix it when you start adding the flour in! Beating the batter too much results in the overdevelopment of gluten, which will make your cake heavy and tough once again.
Get the Recipe: Tangerine Sour Cream Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For The Sour Cream Pound Cake
- 3 cups (13.5 ounces or 383 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups (21 ounces or 595 grams) granulated sugar
- freshly grated zest from 4 tangerines
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces or 227 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For The Tangerine Cake Soak
- ¼ cup (2 ounces or 57 grams) freshly squeezed tangerine juice
- 2 Tablespoons (1 ounce or 28 grams) freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¼ cup (1.75 ounces or 50 grams) granulated sugar
For The Tangerine Icing
- 2 cups (8 ounces or 227 grams) confectioners' sugar, sifted if necessary
- ¼ cup (2 ounces or 57 grams) freshly squeezed tangerine juice
Equipment
- a 10- or 12- inch bundt cake pan
- nonstick baking spray
Instructions
- First, make the sour cream pound cake. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 325℉.
- Mix the dry ingredients for the cake. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt until combined.
- Combine the sugar and zest, then cream with butter and add the eggs. In the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar and the tangerine zest. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar; doing so will release tangerine oil from the zest that will infuse the sugar more powerfully. Once the zest is fully incorporated throughout the sugar, add the butter to the sugar. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, at least 7 minutes.Once the mixture is light and fluffy, reduce the mixer speed to its lowest setting and add 6 eggs, one at a time, using a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of each bowl after each addition. Only add the next egg when the previous one has been incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients, then the sour cream and vanilla. Once the eggs have all been added, scrape down the sides of the bowl one last time and turn the mixer back to its lowest speed. Add the dry ingredients1 cup at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the sour cream and vanilla extract, mixing until the batter is smooth.
- Bake the bundt cake. Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached.
- Cool the bundt cake slightly before inverting it. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, place a serving plate or second wire rack over the bundt cake and flip the cake to turn it out of its pan.
- Make the tangerine cake soak. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the tangerine juice, lemon juice, and sugar for the soak until combined.
- Soak the cake. Place a baking sheet underneath the wire rack holding the cake to capture any drippings. Use a wooden skewer to poke holes evenly throughout the cake.Pour the cake soak over the cake, using an offset spatula or a pastry brush to ease the liquid into the holes across the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely to room temperature before glazing with the icing.
- Make the icing. Pour the icing over the top of the cake and use an offset spatula to spread it into a thin layer on top of the cake. Let any excess icing drip off and transfer to a wire rack to dry for 1 to 2 hours.
- Serve and store. Serve at room temperature. The assembled bundt cake can be stored at room temperature, under a cake dome or a large bowl turned upside down, for up to 3 days. Press a sheet of plastic wrap against any cut surfaces to prevent the cake from drying out.
Notes
buy the book
Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
Baffled by step 6. Just can't picture it. Can anyone explain it a different way … I guess my brain just doesn't work this way. They sound delicious, fast and easy.
You're basically folding each trip in half to trap all the sugar in; hope that clarifies things!
How could I convert this recipe to a Lemon Cheesecake?
This is a beautiful cake.
Oh gosh, I made this cake to take to a cookout this weekend. I know it's not exactly seasonal for spring, but I saw this on your blog and thought it looked AMAZING! It was easy to make and looks so gorgeous! I am in love with your blog, Michelle!