Name: Sourdough Pound Cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 250 g Butter ((salted, softened at room temperature)); 225 g Sugar ((granulated white sugar)); 4 Eggs ((60g each, 240g total)); 60 g Buttermilk; 10 g Vanilla Paste; 135 g Sourdough Starter ((or sourdough discard)); 200 g All Purpose Flour; 8 g Baking Powder; 5 g Salt

Sourdough pound cake is a delicious twist on a timeless classic, bringing the rich, buttery texture you love with a subtle tang from sourdough discard. This cake is dense yet tender, with a fine crumb that makes each bite melt in your mouth. It’s the perfect way to use up your extra starter while creating something that feels both comforting and indulgent. It's just an all round great cake recipe!

sourdough pound cake slice with butter, glaze and a raspberry on a plate.

Whether you bake it in a loaf pan for everyday snacking or a bundt pan for a more elegant presentation, this sourdough pound cake is incredibly versatile. Enjoy it plain, with a dusting of powdered sugar, or dressed up with berries and whipped cream. It keeps beautifully, slices like a dream, and is just the kind of simple, satisfying bake that never goes out of style.

If you're looking for other sourdough cake recipes, you'll love this sourdough vanilla cake recipe and this sourdough strawberry cake.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

Versatile Baking Options – Whether you’re going for a simple loaf or an elegant bundt cake, this recipe adapts beautifully to both.

Deliciously Moist Texture – The addition of sourdough starter gives the cake a soft, tender crumb. It's moist, without being too dense. It's just like the perfect pound cake should be!

Great Use for Discard – It’s a tasty and satisfying way to use up sourdough discard without compromising on taste or texture. In fact, this is the perfect use of sourdough starter discard!

Whole sourdough pound cake sitting vertically on a plate. The photo is taken from above so you can see the golden brown top of the cake as well as the split on the top where the yellow cake is peaking through.

Ingredients

Butter - salted, softened at room temperature (but you can use unsalted butter if you prefer ... but you know how I feel about that lol).
Sugar - I've used granulated white sugar.
Eggs - mine were around 60g each, all 4 together weighed 240g. I would ensure your eggs total this, so if yours are small, use an extra egg.
Buttermilk - I've chosen to use buttermilk because I always have so much on hand from making homemade butter. You can substitute buttermilk with sour cream, or even Greek yogurt if you prefer.
Vanilla Paste - use vanilla paste rather than pure vanilla extract so that you get a strong vanilla flavor. Extract doesn't tend to give a as good a flavor once baked. You can also add some almond extract too if you want to for a different flavor profile.
Sourdough Starter - you can use active sourdough starter or sourdough discard, it really doesn't matter for this recipe as it's lending extra moisture, flavor and texture, rather than leavening. When developing this recipe, I've used active starter because I've always got it on hand, but have also tested it with discard with no issues.
All Purpose Flour
Baking Powder - make sure you use baking powder, not baking soda.
Salt

How To Make a Sourdough Pound Cake

You can make this sourdough pound cake recipe using a stand mixer with either the whisk attachment or paddle attachment or an electric hand mixer. I recommend using a mixer of some sort to cream the butter and sugar together because this ensures the sugar is dissolved, giving the cake a better texture.

Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease your chosen loaf pan with butter and set aside. I haven't lined my pan with parchment paper and I've never had an issue with it sticking (even when using a bundt pan). See notes further down for my pan choices.

Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is lighter in color and the sugar dissolves.

butter and sugar creamed together in glass mixing bowl for sourdough pound cake.

Then, with the mixer still running at speed 3-4, add the eggs one at a time, allowing them to mix in before the next one.

Now add the buttermilk, vanilla extract and sourdough starter and continue to mix until it's all mixed together thoroughly.

wet ingredients in a mixing bowl for sourdough pound cake recipe.

Now, stop the mixer and add the all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Using a speed 1-2 gently mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just combined. You don't want to over mix here.

All ingredients mixed in glass mixing bowl for sourdough pound cake recipe.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes at 175C until golden brown.

sourdough pound cake batter in a loaf pan.

sourdough pound cake batter in a Bundt pan.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for around 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Fresh baked sourdough pound cake loaf sliced on a plate.

Kate's Recipe Tips

Try not to add too much air to the mixture when you add the dry ingredients. A pound cake isn't necessarily light and airy, but has more of a dense, buttery texture.
This sourdough pound cake freezes so well! Why not make a double batch across 2 loaf pans and freeze one for a day when you need dessert in a hurry.

Pan Choices

This recipe fits in most bundt pans. My bundt pan is an Aldi pan and is around 10" across by 3.5" deep and is approx. 10 cup capacity. It also fits perfectly in a 1 pound USA loaf pan measuring 8.5" x 4.5" x 2.75".

When making this in a loaf pan, I generally double the recipe and make two because it's so easy to freeze one!

A photo showing sourdough pound cake baked in both a bundt pan and a small loaf pan.

Flavor Variations

This sourdough pound cake is absolutely delicious just as it is, but as always, I love to be able to tweak flavors and change things up every so often. Here are a few ways I vary this recipe depending on my mood and the ocassion:

Citrus Zing - add a tablespoon of either lemon zest or orange zest to the sourdough pound cake batter and then drizzle the cooled cake with a citrus glaze (simply mix powdered sugar with lemon or orange juice until it forms a drizzly glaze). Decorate with extra citrus zest or dried citrus slices.
Almond - swap the vanilla paste for almond extract. Drizzle the cooled cake with a vanilla glaze and sprinkle with flaked almonds. I like using the vanilla glaze from these fried sourdough donuts.
Fresh Fruit - For an elegant end to a meal, serve this sourdough pound cake with whipped cream and fresh fruit. Fresh strawberries and kiwi are always a winner, as are raspberries and blueberries too!
Raspberry Glaze - bake this sourdough discard pound cake in a bundt pan and once cool, drizzle in a raspberry glaze made by mixing powdered sugar, a dash of milk and fresh raspberries. Decorate with fresh raspberries.
Chocolate - create a chocolate sourdough pound cake by drizzling the pound cake in a simple chocolate ganache. Add 70g of heavy whipping cream and 125g of semi sweet chocolate chips together in a microwave proof jug and zap for around 90 seconds. Once warm, whisk until it comes together in a glossy ganache and pour over the cooled cake.

A sourdough pound cake that has been baked in a bundt pan and then displayed on a glass cake stand. The cake is drizzled in a raspberry glaze and you can see the spoon drizzling the glaze in the top of the photo.

How To Store + Freeze

Because of the moist crumbs, this sourdough pound cake actually has quite a good shelf life. If stored in a air tight container, this cake will last for 5 days on the counter at room temperature or 7 days in the fridge.

This cake freezes exceptionally well, especially when baked in a loaf pan.