Vanilla pound cake, combines with a cinnamon swirl and a crunchy brown sugar and cinnamon topping for an easy and delicious cinnamon loaf.
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour | Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Cooler weather just cries out for cinnamon! This Cinnamon Swirl Pound Cake Loaf is sure to warm you up as the weather cools.
This loaf is a cinnamon lovers dream, that will fill you with all the warming Fall feelings. With it’s lovely swirl of cinnamon cake, combined with the vanilla pound cake and a crunchy brown sugar and cinnamon topping, you’ll never be tempted by the coffee shop version again!
Ingredient Notes
Sour Cream – full fat sour cream is recommended, for best results. Alternately, a full fat Greek-style yogurt would also work here.
Milk – again, whole milk (3.5% b.f.) will give you the best results, though 2% will also work, if that’s all you have on hand. I wouldn’t recommend a lower fat milk. I haven’t tested this recipe with non-dairy milk.
Butter – Salted butter is fine here. If you only have unsalted, you can a touch more salt.
You will also need – white sugar, eggs, vanilla, all purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar and cinnamon.
Recipe Video
Baking Tips
I used my tea loaf pan for this loaf. It’s pretty close in volume to a standard 8 x 4-inch loaf pan, but just slightly bigger, at 4 x 10 inches, so it produces a slightly narrower, longer loaf and shorter loaf. Of course, there is method to my madness with this choice of pan. The narrower, longer, shorter loaf means I can take a thicker slice, without actually eating any more than a thinner slice of a taller loaf (are you still with me here? :). And if you are a frequent loaf slice consumer, you know that the best part of those coffee shop loaves is the thick slices!
If you don’t have a tea loaf pan, the standard 8×4-inch will work just fine. The 8×4 loaf may take an extra few minutes in the oven.
When it comes to pound cake baking, starting with room temperature butter, eggs and sour cream is important, for best results. Simply remove them all from the fridge for 45-60 minutes before you start baking.
Measuring the flour is another area that can make or break your pound cake. Stir your flour first, the scoop or spoon it into your dry measuring cups, then level off with the back of a knife. The “scoop and level” method of measuring flour. It can make a huge difference in the finished result of your baking!
Top Tip
For best results, try your best not to over-bake this one. Even a few minutes of over-baking can result in a drier loaf. Test often towards the end of baking and remove when as soon as a tester inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
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Get the Recipe: Cinnamon Swirl Pound Cake Loaf
Ingredients
Loaf:
- 1/2 cup (113 g) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (190 g) white granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/3 cup (75 ml) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
Cinnamon Swirl:
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon milk
Topping:
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F (not fan assisted) and grease an 8 x 4-inch or 4 x 10-inch loaf pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add 1/2 of the dry mixture to the butter mixture, then the sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
- Remove 1 cup of the batter to a medium bowl. Add the cinnamon swirl ingredients to it - the brown sugar, cinnamon and milk and stir to combine.
- Spoon a thin layer of the plain batter into the bottom of your prepared loaf pan. Using a spoon, drop alternating spoonfuls of the plain and the cinnamon batter into the pan. Top with the remaining plain batter and smooth the top. Using a long skewer or knife, run through the batter in the pan a few times (either lengthwise or from side to side). Just about 3 lengthwise or 4-5 side to side should do it).
- Make topping by combining the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the top of the loaf.
- Bake loaf in the preheated oven for 55-65 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the centre of the loaf comes out clean. (4x10 pan will cook more quickly, 55-60 minutes, while an 8x4 will take a bit longer, closer to 65 or a few minutes more).
- Allow loaf to cool in the pan about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the outside and remove to a cooling rack to cool.
Notes
More Pound Cake Loaves from the Seasons and Suppers Archives
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Absolutely delicious, my family loves it! I have made this recipe of Cinnamon Swirl Pound Cake Loaf at least 5 times in the last two month.
I’m so glad you are all enjoying it, Diana! I never tire of cinnamon flavours :) Thanks!
Love this recipe so much! I’m so glad I came across this recipe and today I doubled the batch and in two loaf tins and it is baking as I’m typing away so hoping it comes out like it did first time round!
So glad you enjoyed it Mezza :) Thanks so much!
Hi I’m so excited to try this! How do you recommend storing it if not eaten in the same day?
Hi Brittni, I usually pop it in an airtight container and store on the counter. If it starts to sit too long, I will usually freeze anything left.
Lovely cake! I’ve been making this for the last year and my kids go wild. Thank you for a wonderfully written and explained recipe.
So glad you are all enjoying it, Nelda :) Thanks so much!
Great recipe. I see that it’s the same base as your wonderful lemon pound cake loaf. I brought this to the mountains on vacation and shared with friends. Excellent even after sitting, wrapped, on the counter for a couple of days. So good. Thank you!
Hi Paula and yes it is :) I figured it was a great starting point when developing this loaf. So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks!
Made this loaf last night following the recipe exactly as printed. I used two 3″x5″ mini pans and baked at 325F for 50 min. The loaves were over-the-top delicious. The pound cake texture was spot on and the cinnamon swirl was divine. Thank you Jennifer for sharing this recipe. I plan to make your Apple Cinnamon loaf later this week.
I’m so glad to hear, Nancy :) This is a perfect loaf for this time of year. Thanks so much!
Wondering if I could double the recipe to make in Bundt pan.
Hi Crystal and yes, that should work. Depending on the size of your bundt pan, all the batter may not fit, but it should bake up fine.
Super easy recipe to follow. Made it exactly as written with the exception of salted butter, because I didn’t have any (just added an extra 1/4 tsp of salt with unsalted butter). Was really surprised how moist and flavorful this was. Will def be making again and thinking of adding blueberries.
So glad you enjoyed it, Patty! Thanks so much :)
This will be my second time making this cake my family loved it! I kept looking forward to my 3pm cup of coffee to have a slice of this delicious cake!
So glad you are enjoying it, Mariana :) Thanks so much!
So easy to pull together and so moist and delicious !
Absolutely will make again.
So glad you enjoyed it, Susan :) Thanks so much!
Your food pictures are beautiful!!
Right now my grandson(7) and I are going to work on the cinnamon pound cake…then onto the lemon loaf.
Hopefully all the aromas will coax my son out of bed before 11.
Surely once he catches a whiff of the cinnamon he will be lulled into the kitchen.
I have no doubt these recipes will turn out…and I usually don’t comment before but some things ya just know!
Thanks so much, Tracy :) Sounds like you had a wonderful Saturday morning going. Do enjoy the loaves!
Hello, this looks delish!
I have a mini loaf pan (8 mini loaves). Any suggestions on bake time?
Thank you!
Hi Angela, I’m thinking the bake time would be in the 25-35 minute range, depending on the size of the loaf pans. In any event, you’d want to watch closely and test when they approach looking done. Make sure the tester comes out clean and you’ll be good :)
Just made this wonderful recipe! Delicious and so easy to do. Of course, I had to have a slice right out of the oven. Thank you so much!
So glad you enjoyed it, Bettyjean :) Thanks so much!
I just love this recipe !! perfect balance of cinnamon and vanilla. I skipped the extra salt as the recipe calls for salted butter. Is it ok ? also wanted to ask for how long can we freeze the cake ?
thanks again for the wonderful recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Megha :) And yes, no problem to skip the extra salt. As long as you used the salted butter, there is enough salt to activate the leaveners. It’s really just to counter the sweetness with a little more salt. Thanks so much!
Easy to follow recipe and a family favourite!
So glad to hear, Steph :) Thanks so much!