Pound Cake Recipe
After months of research and testing I created Pound Cake Perfection. This is the ultimate old-fashioned, buttery pound cake that melts-in-your mouth. I think this will become your go-to recipe.
How to achieve Pound Cake Perfection
A really great pound cake should have an even crumb with a melt-in-your-mouth texture and buttery, vanilla flavor. It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity.
While I’m not opposed to a little glaze or powdered sugar on a pound cake, I think pound cake is meant to be eaten without any frosting. You want all the richness in the cake itself. If you’ve got a really great cake recipe, there’s no reason to hide it under a pile of sweet frosting.
So why is it called “pound cake” anyway?
Pound cake got it’s name based on the original formula of 1 pound each of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. It’s called “quatre-quarts” (four-fourths) by the French.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Cake Flour – Bleached cake flour makes the softest cake.
- Sugar – A little extra sugar tenderizes the cake.
- Milk – A little milk moistens the cake.
- Baking Powder – To lighten the cake crumb.
- Eggs – Extra egg yolks emulsify the batter so it can hold more moisture. The yolks also enrich the cake.
How to make Pound Cake
- Combine the eggs, yolks, half the milk and the vanilla in a small bowl. Set it aside.
- Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl with the sugar.
- Mix the dry ingredients to combine.
- With the mixer running on low, toss the softened butter into the dry ingredients.
- Mix until the flour is coated with butter.
- With the mixer running, add the rest of the milk.
- Mix on medium high for 2-3 minutes to aerate the batter.
- Add the egg mixture and mix until smooth. Scrape the bowl in between to avoid lumps of thick batter.
- Pour the batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan, Bundt pan or angel food cake pan.
- Use the tip of a small spatula to make a trench down the center of the cake.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool at least 20 minutes before turning out of the pan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pound cake is meant to be eaten without frosting so the cake itself needs to be very moist and rich. Pound cake has a high proportion of butter. This gives pound cake a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Adding a little more sugar than the traditional pound cake recipe helps keep the cake moist. Adding milk also moistens the cake.
Cake flour makes a softer and more tender pound cake than all purpose flour. Bleached cake flour allows the batter to hold more liquid for a moister cake and is also slightly acidic. Acidity weakens gluten and makes a softer cake crumb.
The traditional pound cake recipe made with equal proportions of butter, sugar, flour and eggs can tend to be heavy. A little baking powder can be added to lighten the crumb.
Why this is a Better Pound Cake Recipe
There are about a bajillion pound cake recipes out there on the interwebs and, frankly, I’m shocked at how many of them still use the original 1:1:1:1 formula.
Personally, I find that recipe is less than ideal. It’s fairly dense, a little chewy and has a slightly flat taste.
I decided to tweak the traditional pound cake recipe to make it better. I baked 100+ pound cakes over several months of research and testing. I tested each ingredient and how it works in the cake. I also tested various mixing methods, ingredient temperatures and alternative ingredients.
If you’re a baking geek like me, you can read all about how I adjusted the percentages in this comprehensive post about creating a great cake recipe. I used the same formula to make a great Vanilla Butter Cake and White Cake recipe.
If you still haven’t slaked your thirst for all the knowledge about cake batter, go ahead and read through my 7-part Cake Batter Series.
Quick tip: To make an easy petite four cut the pound cake into cubes. Line the cubes onto a clean cooling rack set over a sheet pan. Drizzle Quick Fondant Icing over the cubes and leave them until the icing sets.
Here are some other pound cake recipes for you to try:
- Pistachio Pound Cake
- Key Lime Pound Cake
- Blueberry Pound Cake
- Honey Pound Cake
- Sour Cream Pound Cake
- Marble Pound Cake
- Coconut Pound Cake
- Chocolate Pound Cake
Now that you’ve made this recipe what should you do with all the extra egg whites? Check out this collection of recipes that use extra whites for some great ideas.
If you love this recipe as much as I do, please consider leaving a 5-star review.
Perfect Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs (room temp)
- 4 egg yolks (room temp)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 oz whole milk (¼ cup, divided)
- 8 oz cake flour (1 ¾ cups, see note)
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 10 oz granulated sugar (1 ¼ cups)
- 9 oz unsalted butter (room temp)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to at 350 °F. Butter and flour a 9"x5" loaf pan or Bundt pan.
- Combine 3 large eggs,4 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and half the milk in a small bowl, whisk to combine and set aside.2 oz whole milk
- Sift together 8 oz cake flour, ¼ teaspoon table salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add 10 oz granulated sugar to the flour and mix at low speed for 30 seconds. Add 9 oz unsalted butter to the flour and mix until combined. Add the other ½ of the milk and increase the speed to medium high. Mix for a full 2-3 minutes. The batter will lighten in color and texture. If your using a hand mixer add another minute or two to the mixing time.
- Scrape the bowl and paddle thoroughly. On low speed, add the egg mixture in 3 increments, scraping the bowl after each addition. Mix just until the eggs are incorporated.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth to an even layer. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (about 55-65 minutes).
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn the cake out onto a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.
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Thank you for your super quick response. I ultimately made the pound cake with granulated sugar just so I will have a baseline comparison for when I try the superfine sugar. When I try it I’ll post how they compare. Your recipe turned out absolutely delicious and I am SO happy because I have been looking and looking and testing so many pound cake recipes. Thank you for delivering the perfect recipe! Something funny happened however. I replaced the 1 teaspoon of vanilla with 2 teaspoons of lemon extract. In the back of my mind I thought I shouldn’t add it directly to the egg/milk mixture but did anyway. And sure enough, right after I added it, the whole thing curdled and I had little streaks of scrambled egg in the mixture! I had to start over with another set of eggs, but lesson learned! The second time I was careful to add the lemon extract to the flour/butter mixture just before it was done beating.
I can’t wait to see the comparison shots. I guess you lemon extract had a little acid in it to curdle the eggs. My favorite way to flavor lemon cake is to add lemon zest.
Hi, First I appreciate the detail of your explanations! I have tried many pound cake recipes and am attempting yours this morning because it looks like you have gone through great lengths to perfect your recipes.. I am wondering how using superfine sugar in this recipe would affect the outcome. I’m always looking to make things the best they can be and i think i understand that superfine sugar is sometimes used in some baked goods. Will it possibly give the cake a finer crumb or maybe make it more tender? Thank you.
Hi Chris, I didn’t test my pound cake recipe with superfine sugar, but I did test it using powdered sugar. Honestly, there wasn’t a huge difference in texture between the cake made with granulated sugar and the cake made with powdered sugar. It’s possible that there would be a greater difference if the cake was made with the traditional creaming method since the larger sugar crystals would cut through the butter and incorporate more air bubbles. Smaller crystals also dissolve more quickly than larger crystals and that could have a negligible affect on the texture. But I don’t think buying special sugar or taking the step of grinding the granulated sugar would be worth the trouble for a barely noticeable affect. If you try using superfine sugar compared to granulated let me know if you find a difference.
I am making the pound cake now and I have a glass 9×5 baking dish. I baked for 55 minutes and the center was batter. The sides were great. So I baked another 10 minutes – pulled it out and again center was batter. So now I’m putting it in for another 15 min. What would the problem be? I usually use aluminum pans but I had the dish so I used it. Need a hint please.
Hi Donna, as you’re discovering, the pan you use can make a big difference in how a recipe bakes. Glass does not conduct heat as well as metal, but once it heats up it retains heat better. So a cake baked in a glass container will tend to brown more on the outside and bake slower in the middle. I like to bake pound cakes in a light-colored aluminum pan. But my favorite pie plate is a pyrex glass pan because I get a nicely browned crust for the pie. HOpe it turned out ok.
Hi Eileen,
Pound cake turned out great!! Delicious! After the 15 minutes it was fine! Everyone loved it and they would like me to try it with lemon extract next time. Sooo good! Thanks for your reply.
QUESTION: If I double the recipe, does that mean I must use 8 eggs and 6 egg yolks? Is there any other combination of egg that would not require so many extra yolks, maybe adding more whole eggs and subtracting some yolks? If not, I will make it like this, but just wondered. (I am a pound cake fanatic and am always looking for good recipes.)
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. A really good light and delicious pound cake recipe are very hard to find. I was unfortunately short on egg yolks so I used 4 eggs and 2 egg yolks and I thought it wouldn’t be sweet enough with 1 1/4 cup of sugar so I used 1 3/4 cup of sugar and it was too sweet. I think that might have also thrown off the texture slightly because it was just a bit too buttery (too much of a buttery feel might also have been because I had the butter a bit too soft). I should have stuck with the exact recipe. The cake did have a nice airy quality. Thanks again. i will check out more of your recipes.
Hi Charmian, Glad you were able to experiment a bit and see how balance is important in a cake recipe. Too much sugar makes the cake too tender and is probably why you got a poor texture. If you read the Sugar in Cake Batter post you’ll see how the amount of sugar can make a big difference in the texture of the cake. In the future, I would suggest that if you like the cake a bit sweeter try making a glaze for the top. Mix powdered sugar with just enough milk to get a texture like pancake batter. Pour the glaze over the cake while it’s still slightly warm then let it dry while the cake finishes cooling.