This Grilled Pound Cake with berries is a deliciously unique twist on a classic favorite. Rich, moist sour cream pound cake takes on a smoky flavor and a crispy crust when coated with cinnamon brown sugar butter and grilled.
Serve it topped with vanilla ice cream and berries for a great addition to any barbecue or picnic.
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Delicious Southern Pound Cakes
Southern pound cakes have been a traditional Southern staple for hundreds of years and nothing captures the unique flavors of the South like a rich, decadent pound cake. They're simple recipes resulting in a moist, dense but still tender and soft cake that will just melt in your mouth.
Dress it up or down, they are always a favorite for special occasions and holidays. Try this apple-flavored Apple Cider Pound Cake for the fall season or this luscious Double Chocolate Pound Cake for Valentine's Day or any day.
Why You'll Love This Grilled Cinnamon Pound Cake
A super tasty pound cake with the flavor of cinnamon toast that your guests can put all sorts of delicious toppings on.
Sour cream makes it moist and gives it a slightly tangy flavor which balances beautifully with the cinnamon sugar sweetness.
The cake is delicious served as is for breakfast, brunch, an afternoon snack, or dessert, but it is even better when you take it one step further and grill it.
If you've never grilled a pound cake before, I have to tell you, after tasting it you'll certainly be doing it more often. And, since the grill will be up and running for your 4th of July celebration, you can easily grill a dessert on it too.
Why Grill Cake?
Adds a slightly smoky flavor for a dessert to compliment a meal cooked on the grill.
The cake comes out toasty with the most delicious crust on it. You'll swear you are eating a slice of coffee cake with loads of crumbs on top. The outside has a slight crunch and heat from the grill warms up and softens the inside.
Great for camping over that open fire.
Why grill pound cake instead of other cakes?
Pound cake is denser and will hold up on the grill and not crumble up and fall through the grill grates.
Ingredients
For the sour cream pound cake:
- White granulated sugar
- Cinnamon Brown Sugar Butter - purchase packaged or make your own with recipe below
- Eggs
- Sour Cream
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Vanilla extract
What you'll need if making your own cinnamon brown sugar butter:
- Butter
- Powdered sugar
- Brown sugar
- Honey
- Cinnamon
For the grilled strawberries:
- Fresh strawberries
- Balsamic vinegar
- White granulated sugar
How to Make Cinnamon Brown Sugar Butter
- Place all ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Beat well until it is smooth and creamy. Set aside.
How to Make Sour Cream Pound Cake
This sour cream pound cake recipe has a few steps but it's worth every minute you take making it. The hardest part is creaming the butter for the recommended amount of time.
And if you have a stand mixer it does all the work while you just stand there and wait for it to be done. How hard can that be? So here's how to throw it all together.
- Place 1 ¼ cups of the cinnamon butter in a large mixing bowl. Reserve the rest for grilling.
- Cream butter for approximately 4 to 7 minutes, or until butter is creamy and turns a lighter color. This step incorporates air into the butter to help the pound cake to rise.
- Add sugar.
- Beat until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time.
- Beat until just incorporated.
- Combine dry ingredients together.
- Add ⅓ of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Mix until just incorporated.
- Mix sour cream and vanilla extract.
- Add ⅓ of the sour cream mixture to the batter. Again mix until just blended.
- Continue adding dry ingredients then sour cream mixture to batter, beating in between, until all ingredients are added. Blend until just incorporated. Do not overmix as that can make the cake tough.
- Pour the batter into a loaf pan that has been buttered and floured and lined with parchment that has also been buttered and floured. This will help you lift it out of the pan easily.
- Bake at 325°F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes on a wire rack then remove it from the pan and let it cool the remainder of the way.
How to Grill Pound Cake
- Cut the sour cream pound cake into 1" thick slices. Spread both sides of the bread with the extra cinnamon brown sugar butter.
- Grill the sour cream pound cake slices over medium-high heat for 2 minutes a side or until grill marks appear. Grill the strawberries at the same time for 1-2 minutes per side depending on their size, the larger they are the longer the cooking time.
How to Grill Strawberries
Here are the steps for grilling balsamic sugared strawberries:
- Wash and dry fresh strawberries. Dip into a bowl of balsamic vinegar.
- Immediately roll in granulated sugar.
- Skewer 4-5 strawberries on either a metal skewer or a wooden skewer that has been soaked in water for 30 minutes.
- Ready to grill.
- Grill strawberries alongside pound cake for 1-2 minutes per side, depending on the size of the berries. Mine were quite large and took 2 minutes per side.
Put them together and indulge in this decadently delicious Grilled Sour Cream Pound Cake for your next BBQ. Enjoy!
Tips for Grilling Pound Cake
- Make sure you use thick cake slices, about 1 to 2 inches.
- Place the cake slices at an angle on the grates.
- Grill over direct heat.
- Don't move the cake while grilling to ensure proper grill marks and to help prevent the cake from falling apart.
- Have the toppings out so you or your guests can top the slices and enjoy the grilled cake while it is still warm.
Pound Cake Toppings
Enjoy grilled pound cake with a scoop of ice cream, grilled strawberries, as well as sliced strawberries and blueberries on the side. That adds a nice red, white and blue touch for all of you celebrating the 4th. Here are some more ideas:
- Fruit - Berries, peaches, or pineapple are great choices. Even better if they are grilled.
- Sauces - Caramel, fudge, or fruit sauce drizzled over.
- Syrups - Maple, chocolate, or a fruit syrup like homemade strawberry syrup.
- Nuts and Chips - Chocolate chips or toasted nuts (pecans or walnuts).
- Liquor - Brush the freshly grilled pound cake with rum, bourbon, or flavored liqueur.
- Whipped Cream - Fluffy, creamy, and lighter than ice cream.
More Cake Recipes
Find more ideas and inspiration for easy homemade desserts right here on 2CM!
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Grilled Pound Cake
Equipment
- BBQ Skewers
Ingredients
Sour Cream Pound Cake
- 1 ¼ cups cinnamon brown sugar butter, room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Butter
- 1 ½ cups butter
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
Grilled Strawberries
- Fresh strawberries (5 for each serving you are making)
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Granulated Sugar
Instructions
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Butter
- Place all ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Blend with an electric mixer until well mixed and smooth. Set aside.
Sour Cream Pound Cake
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour loaf pan. Line bottom and 2 long sides with one long piece of parchment paper. Butter and flour parchment paper. This parchment liner will help you remove pound cake from pan.
- In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat cinnamon brown sugar butter at medium speed until creamy and lighter in color. This usually takes between 4-7 minutes. This helps incorporate air into the pound cake.
- Continue beating while gradually adding sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating at low until just blended.
- Mix flour with baking soda and salt.
- Combine sour cream and vanilla extract.
- Alternately add flour and sour cream-vanilla extract to butter-sugar mixture, mixing until just blended. DO NOT OVERMIX!
- Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick in center comes out clean. Do not open the oven prior to the 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes.
- Run knife around ends of cake where there is no parchment paper before attempting to lift out. Lift out and place on wire racks to let cool completely.
Grilled Strawberries
- Wash and dry strawberries.
- Set up an assembly line with balsamic vinegar in a bowl and the granulated sugar on a flat plate.
- Dip each strawberry in the balsamic vinegar then roll in the sugar. Place it on the skewer.
- Repeat with remaining strawberries.
To Grill:
- Preheat grill to medium-high heat.
- Thickly slice cooled pound cake. I like my slices to be about 1" thick.
- Butter both sides of pound cake with leftover cinnamon brown sugar butter.
- Place on grill, along with sugared strawberry skewers and grill for 2 minutes per side, or until grill marks appear on the pound cake.
- Remove from the grill and immediately serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and grilled strawberries or sliced fruit on top.
Notes
- Make sure you use thick cake slices, about 1 to 2 inches.
- Place the cake slices at an angle on the grates.
- Grill over direct heat.
- Don't move the cake while grilling to ensure proper grill marks and to help prevent the cake from falling apart.
- Have the toppings out so you or your guests can top the slices and enjoy the grilled cake while it is still warm.
Nutrition
This post has been updated and was first published on October 23, 2018.
