Fresh Strawberry Pound Cake (with strawberry glaze!)

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This strawberry pound cake recipe from scratch is the perfect spring dessert. With fresh strawberries folded into the sour cream pound cake and topped with a strawberry cream cheese glaze, it’s bound to be a hit at your next party!

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One of my favorite memories growing up was heading to a local farm where you pick all the strawberries you could possibly carry. Now as a kid, that basically meant 1 in the bucket, 1 in my mouth. Needless to say I love my summer berry recipes .

And whatever we did end up taking home, meant strawberries went into everything. 

So this year, I decided to throw some into a pound cake. I’ve made a lemon bread version of this pound cake, and lemon raspberry bread too. This time, strawberries were going to get their chance to shine.

What Do I Need To Make A Strawberry Pound Cake?

For The Cake: 

How To Make Strawberry Pound Cake – Step By Step

First preheat your oven to 350. 

Now let’s talk about pans. I made this strawberry pound cake recipe in my go to favorite bundt pan. To properly prepare your bundt pan you want to make sure to actually wait to grease your pan. You can also bake this in a 2 loaf pans (for about 50 minutes each)

Pro Tip: Because of the shape of a bundt pan, if you grease it too early the grease you use can fall down the sides of the pan. So wait until you grease your pan until right before you add your batter.

Now you have two options: shortening or spray. You can brush shortening on with a paper towel and then dust with flour. Or use a cooking spray that has flour added to it. I use and love this baking spray.  I used both and they both worked great. So use what you have!

This strawberry pound cake recipe starts by sifting your properly measured flour. Now I know sifting might no be your favorite thing. But in order to end up with a light and fluffy cake in the end that rises properly sifting is key. These are my Amazon.

So add in your flour, baking powder, baking soda, and a little bit of salt and sift away.

In your stand mixer you are going to want to cream softened butter (here are 3 easy ways to soften your butter in a pinch!) and sugar.

Do I Need To Soften My Butter To Room Temperature?

Yes. Having properly softened butter is important so that the sugar can basically punch holes in the butter. Those little holes are going to be filled with air. Those pockets of air will expand, and be filled with the gasses created from our leavening agents helping expand those pockets and make your cake rise. If your butter is not at room temperature and too cold, the sugar will not be able to punch through the butter properly and create those air pockets. 

Once it’s all light and fluffy, add in your room temperature eggs one at a time.

Do my eggs really need to be room temperature?

Yes they do. When it comes to baking, temperature plays a vital role. If your eggs are too cold going in the bowl it will seize up all that butter you just creamed in the previous step.

Pro Tip: Place your eggs in a bowl of warm water for about 5 minutes before you add them into your bowl. And just be sure to add them one at a time, so you don’t overwhelm the mixture.

In a small mixing bowl, you want to mix together the sour cream and vanilla extract.

Then it’s time to alternate the sour cream (with a bit of vanilla stirred in) and your sifted ingredients. Sour cream is what makes this cake so darn moist.

Why do you alternate the ingredients? 

When you cream your butter and sugar together, you introduce air into the batter. This air that is introduced is what gives the cake a tender crumb. When you go to add the dry ingredients you want to introduce them gradually. If you introduce them gradually, you won’t deflate all that air you introduced during the creaming process. Basically a major bummer.  (Source:Cooking Light)

Add The Strawberries

Start by dicing your fresh strawberries.  I used fresh strawberries in this cake. No artificial nothing for me thanks.

Pro Tip: To ensure the strawberries don’t sink in the batter toss them first with a tablespoon of flour. It’s what I do to help keep my chocolate chips from sinking too.

Then go ahead and add the strawberries to the mixture. You want to make sure to not over mix. Just stir them in gently, and once mixed in stop stirring 

Now your batter is done. So go ahead and grease that pan.

Then you want to spoon the batter into your prepared pan, or in your loaf pan if you are baking it in that  and bake on the center rack of your oven until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Make sure to cool on a wire rack and once cool then glaze. I allow the cake to cool in the bundt pan for about 10 minutes before removing onto the cooling rack. If you remove the cake immediately it can fall apart on you. 

How To Make The Strawberry Cream Cheese Glaze

Oh but wait, we aren’t done yet. We need to make some glaze. Oh this cream cheese glaze. Be still my heart. I was dipping extra strawberries in this glaze. I just couldn’t help myself.

This glaze has some typical ingredients- cream cheese (for a bit of tanginess), powdered sugar (for sweetness of course), heavy cream (for richness and something to thin it out), and vanilla (for a bit of flavor)- but it also has a secret weapon. Yes my glazes come with secret weapons.

Freeze dried strawberries.

I tried it with fresh strawberries and there was that whole seed and too much liquid thing going on. So how do you pack a punch of strawberry flavor without adding extra liquid? Freeze. Dried. Strawberries.

You can pulverize them in a food processor or simply place in a zip-loc bag and crush them with a rolling pin. I prefer the latter. No need to bust out my processor. No extra dishes to wash. I was able to crush every strawberry into a fine powder (my food processor wasn’t quite able to accomplish this), and it’s one heck of a way to get out any frustrations.

P.S. I found my strawberries in the organic/health food aisle. But if you can’t find any, you can always get them on Amazon of course.

So once the cake has cooled go ahead and drizzle this over your cake. Then cut a slice. Eat. Repeat. Tell yourself you’re getting fresh strawberries and doing something good for yourself 😉 I won’t tell.

More Berry Recipes To Try

• Strawberry Streusel Muffins
• Strawberry Rhubarb Bars
• Strawberry Pie
• White Chocolate Raspberry Blondies

Easter recipes to try 

Although I love enjoying this cake during the summer months, I think it also makes for a stunning Easter dessert as well. Here are a few more Easter recipes to adorn your table this year as well!

• Chocolate Coconut Cake
• Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies
• Easy Carrot Sheet Cake
• 1 Hour Cinnamon Rolls

So hopefully I have inspired you to go ahead and make your own strawberry pound cake. 

Your guests will thank you. As they lick their fingers and reach for another scone.

If you love this recipe, let me know and leave me a comment and star rating below! 

And if you love to bake, and want to dive into more recipes like this – from making pies, to perfect muffins, and even a fool proof angel food cake then be sure to enroll in my Ultimate Baking Bootcamp class!

Print Recipe

5 from 9 votes

Strawberry Pound cake

A fresh strawberry pound cake recipe made with sour cream so it is extra moist! Then drizzled with a strawberry cream cheese glaze made with a secret ingredient!

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time50 mins

Total Time1 hr 20 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: cake

Keyword: cake, strawberry

Servings: 12 slices

Calories: 580kcal

Author: Heather Perine

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups (446 grams) sugar
• 4 large eggs room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups (300 grams) flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup (227 grams) sour cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 pint strawberries diced

For the Strawberry Cream Cheese Glaze

• 4 ounces cream cheese softened to room temperature
• 2 cups (227 grams) powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
• 6 Tablespoons (83.5 grams) heavy cream I've also used milk or water!
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1.2 ounces freeze-dried strawberries crushed to a powder

Instructions

• Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
• In another bowl, combine the vanilla extract and sour cream.
• In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the mixing bowl well after each addition and mix until blended. Add dry and wet ingredients alternately to butter-sugar-egg mixture until uniformly incorporated- do not overmix. Stir in the diced strawberries.
• Grease and flour one bundt cake pan (or 2 large loaf pans- or 6-7 mini loaf pans). Pour batter into pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for approximately 50 minutes (be sure to lower the baking time if you are making things smaller). The cake is done when a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before glazing.
• For the glaze: Mix all ingredients until smooth. Pour over top of cake and serve. For a thicker glaze use less heavy cream.

Notes

• Wait To Grease Your Bundt Pan - the spray/grease can slip down the sides of your pan. So wait to grease until right before you add the batter. 
• Measure your flour correctly. Too much flour in your dry measuring cup can result in a dense dry cake. To measure correctly start by fluffing up the flour in the container. Then spoon the flour into your cup and level with a flat edge. Do not pack it down. Click here for more on how to measure your flour correctly.
• Toss your strawberries in a bit of flour.  Your strawberries can sink to the bottom of your cake while baking. To counteract this, I use a tablespoon of the flour mixture and mix this with my diced strawberries so that the flour helps to keep them suspended in the batter. 
• Bring Ingredients To Room Temperature. Cold ingredients will not play well together and will not resulted in properly creamed butter and sugar either. If your butter is too cold, the sugar can't punch holes into the butter creating air pockets that will expand while baking (aka helping to create a light fluffy cake in the end). And if you add cold eggs or sour cream then this will seize up the butter and ruin all that hard work created during creaming. So bring everything to room temperature first!
• Cool In The Bundt Pan 10 Minutes Before Removing. If you try to remove the cake immediately after taking it out of the oven to cool on a wire rack. It could fall apart on you! So allow to cool for about 10 minutes then remove. 
•  
• Use Freeze Dried Strawberries For The Glaze. For best flavor and best consistency of the glaze, be sure to use freeze-dried strawberries!

Nutrition

Calories: 580kcal | Carbohydrates: 81.1g | Protein: 6.4g | Fat: 27.3g | Saturated Fat: 16.5g | Cholesterol: 124mg | Sodium: 321mg | Fiber: 1.3g | Sugar: 58.8g