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Buttermilk Pound Cake, sliced, on a pedestal
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4.91 from 21 votes

Buttermilk Pound Cake

This ultra moist vanilla buttermilk pound cake has a velvety soft texture and is so decadent. Tastes amazing on its own, or topped with berries and cream!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time1 hour 5 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 15

Ingredients

  • 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
  • 3 cups (600g) sugar
  • 5 large eggs, room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to speed up the process).
  • 3 cups (342 g) cake flour (Not self rising. We use Swan's Down, bleached)
  • ½ teaspoon (2)g baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 1 cup (235 g) buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract

Easy Vanilla Glaze

  • 2 cups confectioners sugar (measure then sift)
  • 3 tablespoons milk (add additional as needed in small increments)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Grease and flour a tube pan.
  • Preheat the oven to 325℉
  • In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
  • Using an electric mixer (paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Next, gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy for 3 to 5 minutes.
  • Add the eggs one at a time, blending after each until the yolk is incorporated.
  • Add the vanilla extract to the 1 cup of buttermilk.
  • With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. I do three additions of dry, alternating with two additions of wet.
  • Scoop batter into prepared bundt pan.
  • Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. *Baking times may vary.
  • This makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
  • Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

Vanilla Glaze

  • Combine ingredients, stirring until smooth. If it is too thick, add more. milk in small increments. If too thin, add additional confectioners sugar. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Decorating the Cake

  • Once the cake has cooled, you can spoon the glaze over the cake, or for more control, you can spoon it into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.

Notes

Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to a measuring cup. To that, add milk to the 1 cup mark. Stir and allow to sit for a minute or two to thicken.
Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.
Bundt Pan: Our bundt pan has a baking capacity of 12 cups and measures about 10 inches. If you are working with a smaller pan, it will take longer to bake. Be careful not to overfill. (General rule of thumb: don't fill pan past ⅔ full)
Freezing: This cake can be frozen. If working in advance, we like to tightly wrap our freshly baked cake in a layer of plastic wrap and foil while the cake is still a bit warm and pop in the freezer. The cake can be frozen for up to three months.
Thawing: Bundt cakes take longer to thaw than cake layers. It is best to move the frozen, wrapped cake to the refrigerator the night before, and then move to the kitchen counter the next morning (still wrapped) to continue thawing for a few hours. If you'd like, you can remove the foil after a condensation has formed.