Ahhhh…..there’s nothing better than a slice of warm pound cake fresh from the oven. This easy and delicious cake has long been a southern staple and is one of my personal favorites!!
Whether you are new to baking, or have been baking up sweets for years, you are going to fall in love with this simple, flavorful pound cake.
Have you ever wondered where Pound Cake gets it’s name? I’m going to give you some fun trivia. Pound cake first originated in 18th century Europe as a delicious, easy, and huge cake recipe that called for a pound of each ingredient: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. That’s a LOT of cake loaves.
These days, pound cakes have been modified in a million different ways, often in favor of a lighter more buttery cake. However, the simplicity of these classic pound cake recipes (not to mention the amazing flavor) will ensure their popularity for years to come. Everyone loves a no fuss go-to cake recipe. No frosting or decorating skills required!
In fact, I have a Pound Cake Recipe Board on my Pinterest page filled with pound cakes that I’m dying to try! Everything from rich chocolate pound cakes to Key Lime and Southern Pecan. If only there were more hours in the day…
The Pound Cake that I am sharing with you today is a family favorite! It is simple, has a nice even crumb, super moist, and the flavor is out of this world. We’ve been making this cake for years for special occasions or for no occasion at all!
This classic pound cake recipe is delicious on it’s own, or dressed up with strawberries & cream or a simple glaze. The flavor is wonderful, and if you like a hint of lemon, I highly recommend using the lemon extract. We always do!
As an added bonus, pound cakes can be wrapped and frozen for weeks or even months at a time! Perfect for those days when unexpected guests pop in, or when you just need a little something sweet to go with your coffee or tea (or a giant slice for breakfast..I won’t tell!)
Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 sticks (339 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups (600 g) sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 3 cups (375 g) all purpose flour, (not self-rising)
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- 1 cup (235 g) whole milk
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) vanilla
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) lemon extract (optional)
Directions
- Grease and flour a tube pan.
- Lower the oven rack to the next to lowest position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a separate bowl whisk the flour and baking powder to combine, set aside for later.
- Cream the butter with the paddle attachment in your mixer, gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time blending after each to incorporate.
- Add the vanilla and lemon extract to the l cup of milk. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the butter, sugar, egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. I add the dry 3 times and milk twice.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- This makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
- **This is also the recipe that we use in our petit fours video! For petit fours, we pour into an 11x15 inch pan so that they are nice and short (approximately 1 1/4 inches tall).
We’ve baked this pound cake recipe into sheet cakes & sliced into squares for our Petit Four Video Tutorial.
Thanks for stopping by! We hope that you’ll give this amazing pound cake recipe a try! Enjoy!
Hello, so I’m making this cake with lots of dried fruits in it next week. Don’t have a Bundt pan, will it work in a 10″ pan that’s about 4″ deep or will it be better for me to bake it in layers?
Hi Fortune, If you do not have a Bundt or tube pan, I am not sure about baking this in 10×4 inch pan. Even with a heating core some bakers have a problem with the outside of the cake becoming too dark because of the long baking time. I have not tried this so I can’t say for sure. This pound cake recipe is rather dense. I have another pound cake recipe that is a bit less dense that you might like to try for cake layers. We used this recipe for a Lemon Raspberry Cake that Melissa will be posting in a few days. Here is a link
Pound Cake…..A less dense recipe
1 cup (116g) (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened ( do not soften in microwave)
2 cups (400g) white sugar
3 cups (300g) cake flour (sift then measure) if you do not have cake flour see note below
4 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup (180g) milk
2 teaspoons ( 8g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ( 3g) salt
2 1/2 teaspoons (10g) lemon extract
3 Tablespoons (38g) lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
**If you do not have cake flour, you can make your own using the following method. For each cup of all purpose (plain in the UK) remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch. For this recipe, there is 3 cups of flour so measure out the flour and remove 6 Tablespoons, then replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.
**For best results when using a tube or bundt cake pan, lower the oven rack. I lower mine to the next to lowest position in the oven.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
Grease and flour an 8 or 10 cup tube or bundt cake pan, I used an 8 cup pan for a taller cake
In a separate bowl, add the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk at least 15 seconds to blend and set aside.
In the bowl of your mixer, cream butter for 2 minutes, gradually add sugar, continue creaming for 4 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy
Add eggs one at a time mixing after each egg until the yellow is blended into batter.
Add flour mixture alternately with the milk, at this time also add the extract,lemon juice and zest. Begin and end with dry ingredients (3 additions of dry, 2 of wet). Blend after each addition just until ingredient is blended in…..Do not over mix as this could dry the cake.
Pour into prepared pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes. Time may vary for your oven. If you find the top of the cake is becoming too dark, cover loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.
The cake is done when a toothpick inserted come out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
Cool in the pan 15 minutes on wire rack. Remove from pan and let the cake continue to cool.