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.
Darrin
Made my very first pound cake using your recipe and it turned out amazingly. Thank you so much for sharing!
I was wondering if there was an easy way to turn this into a chocolate pound cake.
Sam
Hi Darrin! I would reduce some flour and add some cocoa powder, but I haven’t tried it so I don’t know what proportions to use to have the best outcome.
David
I was wondering how much if at all will it rise?
Sam
Hi David! It may rise a little bit, but not a whole lot.
Lisa
Hi it says granulated sugar can you use caster sugar?
Sam
I think caster sugar would be fine. Enjoy!
Rachel McAlpin
Oh no…I only used 6 eggs and not the 6 egg yokes…it’s in the oven. Obviously I can’t read or follow directions.
Sam
Oh no! I’m sorry Rachel, I hope it’s still edible for you!
Mebae
Can I halve this recipe? I was wondering so I could make a test batch of the batter.
Sam
You can halve the recipe, the cook time will be much less. 🙂
Mebae
thank you
Laura
So this uses 12 eggs total – 6 just cracked on the bowl, and 6 with yolks only, no whites?
Sam
That is correct, enjoy! 🙂
Erica Lee
Hi! When I do the skewer test i found the top is rather “hard” and the skewer is still cover with wet batter, could it because my temperature is too high or did I put the cake too high?
PS, I cut half of all the ingredients as I can’t finish such a big cake. Hope it is not the reason 😅
Sam
Hi Erica! It sounds like your oven temperature is too high if the outside is cooked too much and the inside is still raw. There shouldn’t be any issues caused by halving the recipe. 🙂
Terry L. Silberman
Am I reading this correctly – all-purpose flour without baking powder or baking soda?
Sam
Yup!
Barbara fraser
Hi Sam
I made this cake for the first time today, as I was looking for a recipe that used a lot of eggs as I had ended up with a glut of them.
The cake tastes amazing , but what i was wondering if it freezes well, as I like to freeze a few portions so I can have cake at any time. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Barbara
Sam
Hi Barbara! I have not frozen it personally, but I don’t think you will have any issues doing so. Make sure each piece has cooled sufficiently and you wrap it tightly and store in an air tight container. 🙂
Brenda King
I froze the cake and it was still delicious!!!
Kenda Townsend
I can honestly say I’m struggling hard with this. I consider myself a better than good baker, and I made this last night, and again tonight. Last night was *slmost successful. It looked great, perfect browning, slid right out of my tube pan. Did the toothpick test in multiple locations, and nothing! But cut a slice, and there was a 11/2 ring of cake goo (think lava cake) all the way around. I had already baked it 1 hour 30 minutes. The cake was so dense it cleaned the toothpick on the way out!!
Tonight’s cake was no better. Still completely raw. I must be doing something wrong, or I have a measurement off. The flavor is exactly what I’m hoping for, but the texture sucks!! Any help would be appreciated! I’m microwaving slices individually tonight, because, darn it, I want some pound cake!!
Sam
Hi Kenda! If the cake is taking that long to bake and it’s still raw in the center, I’m definitely thinking your oven temperature must be off. Make sure the oven has ample time to preheat before adding the cake and I would recommend getting an inexpensive oven thermometer or two to hang in your oven to make sure it is at the right temperature. I’d also use a long skewer rather than a toothpick to test that the cake is done, as a toothpick really isn’t quite long enough to tell. I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor otherwise though and am happy to help you troubleshoot further if I can.
Adriene
Hi Kenda,
A few tips: cream/beat butter for 1-2 minutes and then add your sugar and beat for another 7-10 minutes, on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time. Fold the flour into the butter/egg mixture or beat on very low speed. Do not over beat. Also, bake cake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Start checking at 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Hope this helps!
Adriene
Jeanny
How many cups of batter does this recipe make? I’m trying to make a giant cupcake and need about 6 c.
Sam
I’m not quite sure. It should make at least 6 cups though.
gloria
Is there no baking powder needed in this cake?
Sam
Hi Gloria! There is no baking powder in this cake. Pound cake is supposed to be a dense moist cake so you don’t need the baking powder. 🙂
Steven
I don’t have a tube pan but I do have a couple loaf pans. Will I have to adjust baking time for these types of pans?
Sam
Hi Steve! Yes you will have to adjust the baking time, but I am not sure how long you would need to bake it as I haven’t tried it that way.
Tammy
I made it today in two loaf pans. It took just over one hour. I started checking for doneness after 45 minutes.
Cyndy
I maade this earlier today and I put some powder sugar on it. It’s amazing and turned out perfect. From now on this is the only poundcake I making. I tried to post a picture of it but it doesn’t work.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Cyndy! Unfortunately it is tough to post pictures on here, but if you join my Facebook Group, you can post all of the pictures you’d like. 🙂
alexandra lundgren
Can you make this cake for a wedding cake, baking it in a 10 inch or 12 inch pan?
Sam
I think you would have more than enough batter, but I am not sure how it will bake up.