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This grapefruit pound cake recipe is exactly what the your winter blues need! Bursting with fresh citrus flavor you will be reaching for a second slice. I love baking with citrus when it is in season in the wintertime. I know you will too!
This fresh grapefruit pound cake recipe is a variation of the first recipe I ever shared on this blog. And get this, I didn’t add a photo. Yup a food blog with no photos. I know, clearly I had no idea what I was doing. It’s ok. You live you learn right?
I’ve made all sorts of variations of this classic pound cake version, from the classic pound cake, to a Blueberry Pound Cake with a fresh lemon glaze (perfect for an Easter brunch!)
Well this year I wanted to give it a fresh new twist (citrus pun intended!) and use grapefruit instead of the triple citrus (lemon, lime, and orange) used in the original lemon sour cream pound cake. And top with a fresh grapefruit glaze to drizzle over it.Normally I love grapefruit for breakfast, but this time I’m saving it for my dessert cuisine!
I’ve made this ruby red grapefruit pound cake a few times now and have updated it to now include stirring in some fresh squeezed grapefruit juice into the batter as well as the powdered sugar glaze. I find the added grapefruit juice into the pound cake batter really ups the grapefruit flavor!
So when it’s citrus season, grab some grapefruits and make this delicious cake!
See Also:
- Grab a few lemons and make this lemon version – my Lemon Sour Cream Pound Cake is wonderfully moist!
- Blueberry Pound Cake is a perfect recipe to make when blueberries are in season, but you can make all year round and use frozen blueberries!
- Love strawberries? This fresh Strawberry Pound Cake with strawberry glaze is the cake for all the strawberry lovers in your house!
Why Is It Called A Pound Cake?
You might think it’s because it makes you put on a pound or two. And sure that could be true. But it’s actually because the recipe for the original pound cake was made with a pound of 4 ingredients- a pound of butter, pound of eggs, pound of flour, and a pound of sugar.
What’s The Difference Between A Sponge Cake and Pound Cake?
The two major types of cake are shortened or butter cakes, like a pound cake, and and foam or sponge cakes. Sponge or foam cakes rely on air being whipped into the eggs to help the cake rise once its in the oven. In asponge cake, the whole egg is whisked with sugar over a double boiler and then whipped on high speed in your mixer to incorporate the air.
With a pound cake, like this recipe the butter and sugar are creamed together and the sifted dry ingredients together.
Tools for Making a Grapefruit Cake
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Buy Now →Grapefruit pound cake ingredients
- Flour – For this grapefruit pound cake recipe you will need all-purpose flour. For best results, I recommend spooning the flour into your cup and leveling it off. Or use a scale and weigh your flour.
- Baking powder – Baking powder is what helps this pound cake rise. Be sure yours is fresh! You can test some in a little bit of water to see if it bubbles.
- Baking soda – This will also help with the cake rising, and browning. Again make sure your baking soda is fresh. Test some in a dish of lemon juice or vinegar.
- Salt – I prefer sea salt as it dissolves into the batter easily and has a more pure salt taste. But kosher or table salt will also work.
- Granulated sugar
- Butter – I always bake and use unsalted butter in my baking so I can control the amount of salt. If you only have salted butter, then you can reduce or omit the added salt. Make your butter is softened to room temperature so it can be creamed together with the sugar to create a light, fluffy cake.
- Eggs – Make sure your eggs are at room temperature so they do not seize up your softened butter and mix into the batter easily. I place my eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before starting.
- Sour cream (or Greek yogurt) – You can use either sour cream or plain greek yogurt. I recommend using full-fat for the best richness and texture in the cake.
- Vanilla extract – I prefer pure vanilla extract for best flavor, but imitation flavor will also work.
- Grapefruit – You will use both the fresh grapefruit juice and grapefruit zest in the cake, and use more juice in the glaze.
- Powdered sugar – You will need some powdered sugar, or confectioners sugar, to make the grapefruit glaze at the end. If you don’t have any, you can make your own homemade powdered sugar.
How To Make This Grapefruit Poundcake Recipe
You want to start by whisking the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
In a small bowl, you want to zest and juice your grapefruit. I love adding both the grapefruit zest and the grapefruit juice for maximum grapefruit flavor!
For zesting the grapefruit I like to use a microplane, but you can also use a vegetable peeler and then chop the zest up finely.
Then combine the grapefruit juice, with the zest, sour cream (or greek yogurt) and vanilla extract. And set this aside. You will add this to the batter, alternating with the dry ingredients later.
Then you want to cream together your softened butter and add granulated sugar together. I use my stand mixer with my paddle attachment, but a hand mixer will also work but the creaming step will take a little bit longer.
Then add in your eggs one at a time until they are thoroughly mixed in.
Then alternate the sour cream mixture and your dry ingredients. You want to start with the dry ingredients and end with the dry ingredients.
I add flour mixture in 3 batches, and the sour cream mixture in 2 batches.
Then go ahead and spray your bundt cake pan. You want to wait and do this at the end. The non stick spray can slip down the sides of the bundt pan if its done too early.
I also recommend using a cooking spray with flour in it to help from the cake from sticking. Or you can also wipe down with shortening and sprinkle with flour. Or use a cake pan release.
And then go ahead and spoon batter into the bundt pan and bake for about 50 minutes in a preheated oven. You want to bake the cake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. I also test the top of the cake by touching and seeing if it springs back slightly.
Then let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before you invert cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.
How to Make a Super Easy Grapefruit Glaze
For the grapefruit glaze, you will just combine grapefruit juice, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Just simply whisk that all together until smooth.
When the cake has cooled completely, go ahead and drizzle with the grapefruit pound cake glaze.
Recipe Tips
- Careful when zesting.When zesting the citrus, make sure to go only down to the white pith layer. The white pith layer is bitter so you want to make sure to not zest this layer, just the outer layer.
- Soften Your Butter.You want properly softened butter so that you can cream mixture properly. The sugar punches holes into the butter creating air pockets, which helps to aerate and help the cake to rise.Here are 3 quick ways to soften your butter.
- Bring your eggs to room temperature.You don’t want cold eggs being added to your creamed butter mixture. It will seize up the butter. So place your eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before using them.
Ruby Red Grapefruit Pound Cake Recipe FAQ’s
Why is my pound cake not done in the middle (or sink)?
This can happen if it cooks too fast, creating a crust on the outside leaving the middle uncooked. This could mean your oven temperature is too high. Do yourself a favor and get an oven thermometer to double check the accuracy of your oven.Related post:Baking 101: Getting To Know Your Oven
How can I tell when the pound cake is done baking?
To test when my pound cake is done, I like to use a long wooden skewer to insert into the cake and see if there are moist crumbs that cling to it. My biggest worry is overbaking it. So making sure my oven temperature is running correctly, I can then set my timer and check it with the skewer to ensure it’s done properly and not overbaked.
How do I store this cake?
This cake will keep covered at room temperature for up to 2 days. Any longer and I prefer freezing it.
Can I freeze this cake?
You can freeze this cake for up to 3 months. I like to slice the cake up and wrap up each slice in plastic wrap and then place in a freezer bag. Thaw at room temperature, unwrapped, before serving.
More Cake Recipes
- Triple Citrus Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe
- Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake Recipe
- Strawberry Pound Cake
- 50+ Patriotic Desserts for the 4th of July
- How To Grease A Bundt Pan (2 Ways!)
- Vanilla Almond Pound Cake
Grapefruit Pound Cake
This poundcake is perfect for winter when it’s made with fresh grapefruit zest and drizzled in a grapefruit glaze!
5 from 4 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes minutes
Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 465kcal
Author: Heather Perine
Equipment
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 1/2 cups (300 g) all purpose flour *spooned and leveled
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (227 g) full fat plain greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) grapefruit juice
- 2 tablespoons grapefruit zest
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened
- 2 1/4 cups (446 g) granulated white sugar
- 4 large eggs room temperature
For the Grapefruit Glaze
- 1 1/4 cups (142 g) confectioner’s sugar
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) grapefruit juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon grapefruit zest
Instructions
Prep oven and pans. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Combine wet ingredients. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together grapefruit zest, grapefruit juice, vanilla extract and Greek yogurt (or sour cream) Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or you can use a hand mixer) cream on medium-high speed the butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add eggs. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the mixing bowl well after each addition and mix until blended.
Alternate dry and wet ingredients. Add flour mixture and yogurt mixture ingredients alternately in 3 additions to butter-sugar-egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, until uniformly incorporated- do not overmix. Scrape down bowl as needed.
Prepare pan and bake. Grease and flour one bundt cake pan. I like to use either shortening, or baking spray made with flour. Spoon batter into pan. Bake on a middle rack, for approximately 50-55 minutes until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before inverting out onto a wire rack to continue cooling. If the cake doesn't release right away, use a knife or spatula and run it carefully around the sides and center to help release the cake, and then try inverting again. Cool completely before glazing.
Make the glaze. Mix all ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Adjust consistency if needed. Pour over top of cake and serve. For a thicker glaze use less grapefruit juice.
Notes
- Storage: Store leftovers, wrapped at room temperature for up to 2 days.
- Freezing: You can freeze the cake (or slices) by allowing to cool completely then wrapping in plastic wrap (I am a huge fan of press-n-seal!) and then in tinfoil or a plastic bag. It will good for up to 3 months.
- Careful when zesting. When zesting the citrus, make sure to go only down to the white pith layer. The white pith layer is bitter so you want to make sure to not zest this layer, just the outer layer.
- Soften Your Butter. You want properly softened butter so that you can cream mixture properly. The sugar punches holes into the butter creating air pockets, which helps to aerate and help the cake to rise.
- Bring your eggs to room temperature. You don’t want cold eggs being added to your creamed butter mixture. It will seize up the butter. So place your eggs in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes before using them.
Nutrition
Calories: 465kcal | Carbohydrates: 71g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 111mg | Sodium: 172mg | Potassium: 110mg | Sugar: 51g | Vitamin A: 575IU | Vitamin C: 3.1mg | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 1.6mg
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