A simple classic, this really is the best pound cake recipe!
While pound cake has traditionally been made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, I’ve made some small adjustments for the best flavor (hello, vanilla extract!). My recipe has a soft, buttery crumb that’s perfectly dense without being at all dry or crumbly and I think you’re really going to like it! Recipe includes a how-to video.
I don’t know where pound cake rates in terms of your favorite cake recipes, but I’ll admit it’s never been a top contender for me. Humble and frosting-less, sure I would eat a slice or two but nobody in my house ever really got excited about pound cake.
Growing up, my mom would always make it as a way to use up her leftover egg yolks after making an angel food cake, AKA my favorite cake, so pound cake has always just been to me what Jon Snow was to Catelyn Stark (the book-version of Cat, I haven’t watched the series but I hear she’s nicer there). Easily overlooked for what I believed was something much better.
Well things have changed (and Jon Snow is my favorite character, anyway), and I hope you won’t make the same mistake that I did of overlooking one of the most classic, best-tasting cakes to ever grace my kitchen.
So, what is so great about this pound cake recipe, anyway?
For starters, it has a tight, dense crumb that’s in stark contrast to the “light and fluffy” cakes that I usually share. This is a heavy cake with a heavy, velvety batter, but there’s nothing dry or crumbly about it. Instead, each bite of this cake is moist and buttery and just melts in your mouth.
Simple as sunrise with just 6 ingredients, flavored with pure vanilla extract and carefully prepared (it’s not difficult to make, but there is some technique involved), this cake is a dream to devour. Let’s go over some of the basics for making this pound cake recipe.
What are the ingredients for pound cake?
Traditionally, pound cake is made with butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. After many, many taste testing sessions I decided to add vanilla extract and salt, as well.
If you’ve read my post on salted vs unsalted butter, you already know that I generally like to use unsalted butter in my recipes and then add salt in order to have the most control over the flavor of my cakes, and a splash of vanilla in the batter was pretty much a no brainer for the best flavor.
Why do they call it pound cake?
This cake was originally made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, and so the name pound cake was born. Crazy stuff, huh? 😉
Can I make this recipe using cake flour?
I know somebody is going to ask me this so I wanted to address this here. Generally I engineer all of my recipes to be made with all-purpose flour and this recipe is no different. However, for those of you who like using cake flour, the answer is yes, you can do a straight 1:1 substitute for cake flour.
This pound cake will turn out just as well; slightly softer, a smidge less dense, but still delicious. I played around with different amounts and different substitutions and finally decided that a 1:1 substitution worked best if you absolutely have your heart set on using cake flour. Personally, I just stick to all-purpose.
How can I tell if my pound cake is finished baking?
Because of its thick batter and the sheer volume of batter, it’s going to take over an hour for your pound cake to finish baking, probably an hour and ten to an hour and fifteen minutes. However, for this pound cake to turn out moist and not dry, the most important thing when baking your pound cake is to make sure that you do NOT over-bake it.
I recommend first making sure your oven is not running hot (I keep two oven thermometers in my oven at all times just to make sure my oven display is telling me the truth) and then checking your cake earlier rather than later. I check my cake at one hour and then return it to the oven in about 5-minute increments until it’s finished baking.
To test if it’s finished, the best method is to use a long wooden skewer (like the kind used for shish-kebabs) as this batter is so thick that a toothpick just won’t cut it. Insert the skewer into your pound cake and check it for moist crumbs.
If you have wet batter on your skewer, your cake needs to bake longer, but if there are a few moist crumbs then it’s time to pull that cake out of the oven! The pound cake is going to continue to bake while it cools, so if you pull out a completely clean skewer from your cake, it’s already at risk of being over-baked and dry, so you want to retrieve your cake from the oven before it hits that point.
Since I mentioned my mom’s recipe earlier, I think that I should mention that this actually isn’t her pound cake recipe, but it will use up egg yolks just as well (with over a dozen hens, using up eggs was always a challenge in our household). Hers strays a bit further from the traditional guidelines that I was trying to adhere to and is technically a “German Gold Pound Cake Recipe” and I’ll probably share that one in time (it’s truly delicious, I overlooked it in the past purely out of misguided prejudice).
Enjoy!
How to Make Pound Cake (The Best Pound Cake Recipe)
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The Best Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted butter softened (455g)
- 3 ½ cups granulated sugar (700g)
- 6 large whole eggs¹
- 6 large egg yolks¹ (these 6 egg yolks are in addition to the 6 whole eggs listed above).
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour² (438g)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F (175C) and generously grease (with shortening) and flour a 10 inch tube pan or 12 cup bundt pan. Shake out excess flour and set aside.
- Place your butter in a large bowl (this recipe makes a lot of batter! I recommend using a stand mixer if you have one) and use an electric mixer to beat the butter until it is creamy and smooth.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugar. Beat until the ingredients are well combined and light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, combine your eggs, additional egg yolks, vanilla extract, and salt.
- Use a fork to lightly beat the eggs and yolks until all egg yolks are broken up and salt and vanilla are incorporated.
- With mixer on low speed, slowly pour egg mixture into your batter, allowing it to gradually become incorporated (don't pour all the egg mixture in at once, if you can't manage a steady stream then add the egg mixture in about 6 parts, allowing each part to become well incorporated before adding more). Once all of the egg mixture is incorporated, pause to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then increase speed to medium-high and beat for another 1-2 minutes.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually, about 1/4 cup at a time, add flour to the batter until all has been added.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl and stir again on medium speed until well-combined and beat for another minute.
- Spread batter evenly into prepared tube pan, use a spatula to smooth the surface of the batter.
- Transfer to 350F (175C) oven and bake for an hour and ten to an hour and fifteen minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the thickest part of the cake comes out clean or ideally with a few moist crumbs (do NOT over-bake this cake or it will be dry)
- Allow cake to cool for at least 20 minutes then run a knife around the sides of the tube pan and the center.
- Carefully invert pound cake onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Maria
This is amazing! Despite some comments saying their cakes were raw in the middle or the top browned too quickly, mine came out perfectly! This is was just my second time using a bundt pan, too. I love how this recipe used a pound of butter, it gives such a rich and decadent flavor. The cake had the perfect amount of sweetness, not too sweet even though the recipe calls for 700 grams of sugar. I used cake flour, and my cake baked perfectly in 70 minutes. Will definitely be making this again!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Maria! 🙂
Maria
Was wondering how long it would take to bake if I would bake this in a 9×5 loaf pan? Thanks!
Sam
Hi Maria! This will fill 2 9 x 5 loaf pans. While I haven’t tried it myself, I have had others report about an hour bake time, but just keep an eye on it. 🙂
Mary
I am sorry to say this recipe did not come out good top browned but batter did not cook. What went wrong? I followed the recipe to the T
Sam
Hi Mary! I’m sorry to hear this, unfortunately it sounds like your oven is running hotter than it lets on, resulting on the outside baking quickly and the inside not baking properly. I keep two oven thermometers in my oven to make sure it is running at the correct temperature because honestly many ovens do not run at the temperature they claim to 🙁
Chandra
Hi Mary how long did you let it bake? At the hour I could tell mine was not ready. I had to bake mine for 1hr and 45 mins.
Jean
I can’t wait to make this recipe but as a chocolate pound cake. What do you recommend I change in the ingredients? Should I decrease the flour and add ditched cocoa? Please advise. Thank you. Jean K. in Delaware
Sam
Hi Jean! I haven’t made this cake chocolate, but I do have a chocolate bundt cake you could use. 🙂
Melissa
I love this cake!!! The recipe is easy to follow and taste great!!!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Melissa! 🙂
Katie
Hi! If I only want to make this in one, 9″ x 5″ loaf pan, would I just halve the recipe? So excited to make it.
Sam
Hi Katie! Yes you can just cut the recipe in half. I hope you love it! 🙂
Alice Dennis
When making pound cake that calls for unsalted butter but you only have salted do I just leave out the teaspoon of salt .
Sugar Spun Run
Yes, you will omit the additional teaspoon of salt. 🙂
Danielle
This is my second time in two weeks to make this cake! The first was perfect. I followed instructions. This time I worked from memory and used butter that was still a bit cold when I started. I also forgot to set the oven to 350 and baked the cake at 325 for the first 45 minutes before turning it up to 350. It isn’t pretty, but I’m still confident it will be delicious! For this, my second time, I’m baking with my best friend’s 10 year old in an oven with which I’m not familiar and a pan that doesn’t have straight sides. We’re waiting for it to cool. The top has a bubble and I’m concerned the pan won’t release the cake. 😅
Sam
I’m glad it turned out the first time! I hope the second one was still delicious as well. 🙂
Danielle
It wasn’t done, but we didn’t seem to mind at first. Then I remembered there were 12 egg yolks and put it back into the oven. Not the right call. Ended up overcooking it. Lesson learned. 🤷🏾♀️ Following directions from now on! 😅❤
Linda
Thank you for this recipe, this is the 2nd time I’m trying it. The first time it turned out exactly how I wanted it😁. It did take extra long (~1.5hrs) for my skewer to come out clean though (it was a loaf pan, recipe divided in half) but it was well worth the wait. Having baked for many years I thought it odd to bake a cake without baking powder (I thought may be you forgot) so I did add 1teaspoon of baking powder. I kept skimming through your recipe as to why baking powder was left out but I don’t see anything (except a comment from someone asking about it).
Sam
Hi Linda! I’m glad you enjoyed it. This is a traditional pound cake which is why baking powder isn’t used here. 🙂
Linda
Okay, thanks Sam! Next time I’ll be brave enough to try it without the baking powder😊
Angelina
I baked the cake for an hour and 10. It was delicious but I noticed the inside top part was not fully cooked although the edges were getting almost burnt (which is why I took it out). Do you know what was my issue? Was it my butter not being creamy? It’s quite cold here, maybe I should have microwaved it after letting it come to room temp?
Sam
Hi Angelina! If the outside of your cake was burning and the center wasn’t quite cooked, my best guess would be that your oven temperature is actually a little bit higher than it says it is. The cake should be able to bake all the way through without burning. I hope this helps. 🙂
Rebecca
So no baking powder required for pound cake?
Sam
Correct. Not in this recipe. It might be helpful to read the post, I explain my ingredient choices there 🙂
Tanie
Could you use a muffin tin or a large hamburger bun pan to make individual servings?
Sam
Sure thing. The bake time will definitely be different though. 🙂
Mici
Looks nice!
Melissa
Can this be made in a 9×13 pan?
Sam
Hi Melissa! It should work in a 9 x 13. It will make too much batter for the pan though so make sure to not overfill it. 🙂
David Hogan
Can you add dried fruits and nuts to this recipe
Sam
Hi David! That will work fine. Take care not to overflow the pan. You may want to remove some of the batter just to be safe. 🙂
Annemarie
I’m really surprised there is no milk in this recipe! Correct?
Sam
Hi Annemarie! That is correct :). Milk would make the crumb lighter, traditionally pound cake is nice and dense and that’s what I aim for here.
Carol Boehm
Thank you, I was wondering that myself.
Karen
I am wondering if you think this would make a good wedding cake. Seems to me years ago wedding cakes were made from pound cakes. I would still dowel it, but I think a pound cake will hold its shape. I have baked this cake many times, love it! I would give it 10 stars.
Sam
Hi Karen! This is a very sturdy cake so it will hold up nicely. I hope it turns out nicely. 🙂
Marvel Haynes
Marvel
Can I use baking powder and how much I am using all purpose flour
Sam
Hi Marvel, you do not want to use baking powder with this recipe.