A true classic, my Pound Cake recipe is simple (only six ingredients) and satisfying! This cake is heavy and dense (as it ought to be!) while simultaneously being soft, buttery, and absolutely melt-in-your-mouth! It’s incredible served alone or pairs beautifully with whipped cream and fresh fruit. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Traditional Pound Cake (Made Better!)
I’m not sure where pound cake rates in terms of your favorite cake recipes, but I’ll admit it had never been a top contender for in my household. Humble and frosting-less, sure I would have a slice, but nobody in my house ever really got excited about pound cake, often overlooking it for light and fluffy angel food cake or prettily iced layer cakes.
If your experience with pound cakes of the past is anything like mine, you’re in for a real treat today. I set about developing this recipe with a mission, determined to perfect a pound cake that was simple and not overly complicated, one that didn’t stray too far from the traditional version (no fancy or unusual ingredients) but at the same time put all of its predecessors to shame.
Here you have it. Perfectly balanced, rich and sweet, my pound cake is so buttery and soft that melts in your mouth, and it’s anything but boring. It’s a heavy cake (as pound cakes should be!) with a dense, velvety crumb, but there’s nothing dry or crumbly about it.
While this cake can hold it’s own, it’s even better when served with homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit. It would also pair well with a spoonful or two of lemon curd (a great way to use up some leftover egg yolks!).
Break out your bowls–you’re going to need a big one–and let’s talk about what it is that makes this cake so perfectly special and irresistible.
What You Need (and What You DON’T)
Pound cake has traditionally been made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. When developing my recipe, I wanted to stay as true as I could to the traditional version, but some small adjustments were in order for the absolute best flavor (I mean, hello, vanilla extract!). The result is a soft, buttery crumb that’s perfectly dense without being at all dry or crumbly.
- Butter. Unsalted butter works best for this cake. It should be softened, but not so soft that it’s greasy, melty, or oily.
- Sugar. We stick with tradition and use regular granulated sugar only in this cake. Make sure to whip your butter and sugar until fully incorporated and fluffy before you move to the next step.
- Eggs. You will need six whole eggs and six additional egg yolks. It might seem like a lot, and it is, but trust me! The extra yolks help to keep the cake crumb moist with almost custardy undertones/flavors. We omit extra whites because they would make the cake crumb too light (remember, this is a dense cake!) and could even make it dry. This cake is perfect for using up extra yolks from another recipe! Save your extra egg whites to make meringue, pavlova, or Eton mess!
- Vanilla. You’re going to add a whole tablespoon of vanilla to this cake batter. This may seem like a lot, but I promise it’s just the right amount! PS. If you have a batch of homemade vanilla extract sitting in your cabinet, this is the time to bring it out!
- Salt. For flavor, I add a little salt.
- Flour. I specificaly developed this recipe to be perfectly soft and tender using plain ol’ all-purpose flour, but include notes in the recipe in case you’d like to substitute cake flour. Make sure you know how to measure your flour properly, or may end up with a dry cake. One more thing that I cannot stress highly enough: do not, under any circumstances, use self-rising flour. Your cake will almost absolutely overflow.
You may notice that my pound cake recipe does not use baking powder. This is intentional! Pound cake ought to have a dense crumb, and baking powder serves to lighten a cake’s crumb and help it rise. The eggs in our recipe work all of the rising-magic that we need, and not only would adding baking powder make the cake crumb too light (best-case-scenario), you’re also bound to find it’s overflowed all over your oven when the baking time has elapsed.
SAM’S TIP FOR LEMON POUND CAKE: I’ve received lots of requests for how to make a lemon version of this pound cake recipe. While you could just swap out the vanilla extract for lemon, it’s not going to taste as bright and sunny as you’re used to. I have a separate lemon pound cake recipe that packs lots of lemon flavor and is draped in a stunning white glaze. I highly recommend you try it!
As always, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pound Cake
- Grease and flour your baking pan. Shake out any excess flour and set aside.
- Beat the butter until smooth, then add sugar. Cream until light and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and salt. Slowly drizzle egg mixture into your butter mixture with mixer on low speed. Pause to scrape sides and bottom of the bowl, then increase speed and beat for another 1-2 minutes.
- Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour. Scrape and stir again on medium speed until well-combined, then beat for another minute. You should have a completely smooth, uniform batter. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top.
- Bake in 350F oven for an hour and ten to an hour and fifteen minutes. Test with a wooden skewer for doneness.
- Cool for 20 minutes, then run a knife around the sides and center of the pan before carefully inverting onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before serving.
SAM’S TIP: To test if your cake is 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 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 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
While this recipe was very deliberately developed to be moist, the most important thing when baking your pound cake is to make sure that you do NOT over-bake it. I recommend 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. Because of its thick batter and the sheer volume of batter, it’s going to take quite a while in the oven, probably an hour and ten to an hour and fifteen minutes. I check my cake at one hour and then return it to the oven in about 5-minute increments until it’s finished baking.
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? 😉
This pound cake should not overflow if prepared as written and baked in the proper-sized pan (indicated in the recipe card). I have found that some people have had their cakes overflow, and in each instance this has happened because they had substituted self rising flour, used 12 whole eggs, or added baking powder to the recipe. Please do not make any of these alterations.
Enjoy!
More Classic Cakes to Try:
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
The Perfect Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (455 g) unsalted butter softened
- 3 ½ cups (700 g) granulated sugar
- 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 ½ cups (438 g) all-purpose (plain) flour²
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.2 cups (455 g) unsalted butter
- 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).3 ½ cups (700 g) granulated sugar
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, combine your eggs, additional egg yolks, vanilla extract, and salt.6 large whole eggs¹, 6 large egg yolks¹, 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon 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 ¼ cup at a time, add flour to the batter until all has been added.3 ½ cups (438 g) all-purpose (plain) flour²
- 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 in the center rack of your oven 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
¹Eggs
A lot of people have had questions about how many eggs to use. You need a total of 12 eggs for this recipe BUT you are only going to be using 6 whole eggs and then another 6 egg yolks. Meaning you will be discarding 6 egg whites (or save them to make meringue cookies or my white cake).²Cake Flour
If you’d like, you can substitute cake flour. If measuring your flour by weight (which you really should be!) you can do a straight 1:1 substitute for cake flour. If measuring by cups you will need 3 ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons of cake flour. This cake will turn out just as well; slightly softer, a smidge less dense, but still delicious. Just like with using all-purpose flour, you DO NOT need to add baking powder to this recipe if you use cake flour. Also worth noting: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE SELF-RISING FLOUR.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Tony R.
Was not my favorite. It wasn’t moist and it was way overdone and only had in the oven for 60 min.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so sorry your cake didn’t turn out, Tony. Does your oven happen to run a little warm? You want to make sure to bake it on the center rack as well. It sounds like the cake may have been over baked if it was dry. 🙁
Sam
At the 1hr and 15min mark, I checked my pound cake, and the top had a nice golden brown color to it but the middle was still gooey (not cooked). I tested it with the wooden shish kabeb skewer. I did 5min intervals for another 20min and it was still not cooking all the way thru. I then covered cake with aluminum foil (thanks google) and timed it for another 15min. Checked half way thru the 15min, and seems to be cooking all the way through. Even after 15min, it needed another 25min with foil checking every 5min. The skewer was coming out clean and not gooey. I think next time I’ll use cake flour instead of all purpose flour. The batter was really intense to mix with my hand electric mixer (saving up for my stand alone mixer) lol. The smell of the cake is so divine and brings a cozy aroma to the entire house. Total cook time for me was almost 2hours! The foil did help cook the cake all the way thru. I did use the butter and eggs/yolks at room temp. I also did not mix at high speed. Will most likely reattempt same recipe but replace it with cake flour. I used a bundt pan 12in. Cake came out so good and moist with the perfect brown edges!!! Just make sure you test it and keep cooking it until it’s all done! Thank you for the recipe!
Brenda Marone
Hello, l had the same problem with mycake l will try tobake it longer and see if that helps thanks for the tip.
Yvonne
Hi . Excited to make this cake.. I want to use mini loaf pans and wondering how long I would bake them and should I use same oven temp as listed above. Thank you
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Yvonne! It will work in mini loaf pans, but unfortunately we do not know how long they would need to bake. 🙁
Suz
I love all your recipes but I found this too sweet (and I love all sweets, I just was hoping more more of a butter flavor and less mouthfeel of sugar). I do give it 4 stars because of the clarity of the instructions. I was thinking of cutting the sugar in half to be a similar amount as the butter and flour like the more classic recipes, but I didn’t want to deviate at all since I have had such great successes with all your other recipes. Would you kindly suggest a way to make it with half the sugar? Should I compensate somehow with the other ingredients (eg more eggs?). Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Suz! We suggest you try reducing the recipe by 1 cup (so use 2 1/2 cups or 500grams). We wouldn’t advise using any less, as it could change the cake. Please let us know how it turns out for you!
Vickie Pratt
Would this recipe for pound cake work with gluten free flour?
Sam
Hi Vickie! Unfortunately I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure how it would turn out. If you do try it I would love to know how it goes. 🙂
Luke
I just ordered a 9in bunt cake pan. It did not tell me how many cups it holds. Would this work or probably not?
Thanks Sam! Love your cooking!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Luke! It will work, but just make sure you don’t overfill your pan. You will probably have leftover batter. Enjoy! 😊
Zaany Hadnot
How much sugar do I use?
Sam
Hi Zaany! All of the ingredients are in the recipe. 🙂
Chris
Amazing recipe! Would it be safe for my kids to lick the batter off the spoon? Kind of a strange tradition my family does when baking 😅
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you think so, Chris! Unfortunately, with the raw eggs and risk of E.coli in the raw flour, we wouldn’t recommend consuming the batter. 🙁
Penney
Great recipe! Do you have cooking times for loaves? Would love to divide the recipe and make a few smaller cakes for gifts.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Penney! We’re so happy you like the recipe. Others have reported around anywhere from an hour to an hour and 15 minutes when prepared in a loaf pan. Hope that helps! 🙂
Serena
Middle of cake not cooked. Outside really dark and flaky, is not cooked thoroughly. I have no idea why this is happening. I baked in the center rack. Seemed like the batter was too thick needs milk. Idk. So frustrating. Husband craving a pound cake. What could I have done wrong
Sam
Hi Serena! I’m sorry this happened! If the outside is burning and the inside isn’t cooking, it sounds like your oven may be running hotter than it says it is. 🙁
Judy
Do you think this pound cake recipe would be good for shaped pans like a
nordic ware castle? If not can you recommend a recipe ?
Thanks so much! I love your videos 🙂
Sam
Hi Judy! This one should work just fine for that pan. Make sure to prepare the pan really well as those are notoriously difficult to get cakes out of. 🙂
Judy
Great! Thanks Sam!
Vicki Carlson
Hi Sam!
Do you have a chocolate pound cake recipe? Or can I add cocoa powder to this recipe?
Thanks, Vicki C
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Vicki! We have a chocolate bundt cake that is very similar in texture. 🙂
Teri
I made this first time for Thanksgiving. It was delicious. My grandmother always had her friend make our pound cake for the holidays. I wish she were hear to taste the pound cake that I made! The video helped a lot too. Thanks!
Tasha
I like the recipe and the added yolk tip, I added some clementine zest orange essence and cranberries for a cranberry orange pound cake.
For me however it was just way too much sugar.
I used 3 cups rather than the 3.5 and it still feels like each bite is inching me towards diabetes…
I will likely try again with less sugar
Diana
I’ve tried this cake three times and the bottom of cake (after inverted) is always not cooked thoroughly. I have no idea why this is happening.
Sam
Hi Diana! It may just need to bake for a few minutes longer. I like to use a wooden skewer to test this one since it’s a pretty thick cake. 🙂
John Cashwell
I’ve made this cake about 6 times. Only once was it successful. Either it was not done in the middle or I had to basically over bake it till it was crunchy. It’s almost like it needs baking soda or something to help it along. I’m going back to my old recipe and abandon this one.
Sam
Hi John! That is frustrating to hear, I would make sure you are baking in the center rack and make sure your oven is running true to temperature. I am glad it worked for you once before and am not sure why you wouldn’t have that result every time 🙁
Susan Thornton
It is the BEST pound cake recipe ever! I just made it, I only had 2 smaller bundt pans so I divided the batter and cooked less time and it turned out perfectly.