Old-fashioned pound cake recipe

What is the origin of pound cake?
It is said that pound cake is originated back in Europe in the 1700 century. Later Americans introduced this as dessert recipe in 'American Cookery' cookbook in 1976. They are either baked in ;Bundt Pan' or 'Loaf Pan'. Whichever pan you take, it takes just delicious. You can more about it's history here.

Why is pound cake called as pound cake?
Pound cake is a type of cake made with just 4 ingredients and all of these ingredients weight one pound each. I.e., traditional or old-fashioned pound cake contains one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, one pound of sugar and one pound of eggs.

It does not contain any rising agents or flavorings. Cake rises based on the air incorporated in batter.

Why is this best old-fashioned pound cake?

1. Contains only 4 ingredients.
2. Very basic and easy to make.
3. Moist, buttery and melts in your mouth.
4. Not dry at all.
5. Freezer friendly.
6. Can be easily paired with many toppings.
7. Dense but still have soft and smooth crumbs.

Ingredients List

1. Unsalted butter: Unsalted butter is required in this recipe. Make sure to bring it room temperature. Ideally, temperature of room temperature butter is 64F or 18C. When you touch it, it should make a indent but should not make your hand greasy. So, this is still soft to whip it easily.
   If your butter is too soft and greasy, your cake will not rise properly.
   
   Quick tip to bring the butter to room temperature: Cut the butter into small cubes, approximately 0.5 inches thick. Spread it on microwave safe plate. Microwave 1 cup of cold tap water for 5-6 minutes on high. Remove the cup and quickly put butter plate in, close the door. DO NOT turn microwave back on. The residual heat will soften the butter in 5 minutes.
2. Sugar: Granulated sugar or superfine sugar or caster sugar works better in this recipe because grains are smaller so it dissolves easily into the batter. However, if you do not have any of these, regular sugar works fine too.
3. Eggs: Make sure to bring your eggs to room temperature. It is important that eggs need to be at room-temperature because it will incorporate into the batter.
   
   Quick tip to bring eggs to room temperature: If you forgot to take your eggs out, it is completely fine. You can put them in a bowl of warm tap water and leave it in kitchen counter for 5 minutes. That is it! Wipe it dry and use it.
   
   Eggs size: Usually the size of large egg sold here in Canada or Us are 50-55 g or 2 Oz. If your eggs are smaller or larger, just weigh them. It should be 300-330 g or 12 Oz in total.
   PS: This weight is including shells. If you want to measure without shells then, it should be 270-300 g or 10.8 oz.
4. All-purpose flour: Just a regular all-purpose flour, nothing fancy here. Just make sure to sift it at least twice so that air is incorporated.

Tools to make old-fashioned pound cake

1. Stand mixer or hand mixer
2. measuring spoons
3. Sifter
4. measuring cups
5. weighing scale
6. loaf pan
7. parchment paper
8. cling wrap
9. aluminum foil

Overview: old-fashioned pound cake

I have mentioned step by step recipe with images below and also mentioned all the details in recipe card but let’s quickly understand the basic steps before you start.

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add one egg at a time and mix until it is well combined.
3. Add 1/2 cup of a flour at a time.
4. Bake, cool and enjoy.

Step-by-step instructions

To prevent ruined cake, follow my step-by-step instructions and you will have the best, moist, buttery old-fashioned pound cake ever. Let's begin!

1. Grease your loaf pan or bundt pan with vegetable shortening or butter and flour. First, grease your pan with butter or vegetable shortening and then, add 1/2 tbsp of flour. Shake the pan so it coats the entire pan (base and sides) from inside. Discard the remaining flour. This ensures easy release of pound cake.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed with stand mixer or hand mixer until it is light and fluffy.

3. Now add one egg at a time and mix until mixed properly. Make sure to scrape down the mixing bowl in between.

4. Add the flour in to mixture and mix it on low speed until it is just combined.

5. Pour the batter in prepared loaf pan and bake it in oven for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The best way to know if your cake is done is to check 5-10 minutes before actual baking time. Take a clean toothpick and insert in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean then your cake is done. PS: it should not have any moist crumbs attached to it.

Note: Bake time depends on various following factors:

• How your oven is working or how your oven is calibrated.
• If you are using light pan or dark pan.
• If size of your baking pan pan is different than what is mentioned in the recipe.

6. Once it is baked, cool it in the pan until it is warm to touch and then invert the cake on cooking rack and cool it for 15-20 minutes.

How to bake pound cake in loaf pans?

This recipe is baked in loaf pan. The ideal loaf pan size 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 inches (21.59 x 11.43 x 6.35 cm) and this recipe uses the same measurement loaf pan. In this loaf pan, pound cake takes approximately 50-60 minutes to bake.

If your loaf pan in smaller or bigger than this one, then the bake time will be different. If it is smaller, bake time will be higher and if it is larger, bake time will be less.

How to bake pound cake in bundt pan?

Traditional size of bundt pan is 10 inches. So, you can make this old-fashioned pound cake recipe in traditional bundt pan for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Make sure to grease and flour your pan for easy release.

PS: Bake time will change according to the size of the pan. If you have smaller pan, bake time will more and vice a versa.

Few easy variations in pound cake

There are literally numerous variations on this old-fashioned pound cake. I have mentioned few of them below:

1. Addition of flavorings or extracts such as vanilla extract or lemon extract or almond extract.
2. Add some dried fruits such as cranberries, raspberries, strawberries etc.
3. Addition of nuts such as walnuts or raising. It is the most common variations in Mexico.
4. You can also add rum to make something special on Christmas eve.
5. Original recipe is modified to change the texture of a pound cake by adding rising agents. If we add rising agents, it will make the pound cake less denser and taller. Some adds mashed bananas for that extra moisture.
6. Some recipe replaces some part of butter with oil or sour cream or cream cheese to make it moister with tangy twist to it.

Decorating and serving the old-fashioned pound cake

This is a plain old-fashioned pound cake which goes with many topping easily. usually it is served warm but you can eat it as it is. Below are few of my favorites:

1. Scoop of vanilla ice cream: If you are eating it immediately after baking then it is warm already but if it is not warm, then keep it in microwave for 8-10 seconds and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yumm!
2. Any jam or fruit compote works fantastic.
3. Very traditional way of serving is with whipped cream and berries. You can make your own whipped cream at home or store-bought is fine too.
4. Dust the cake with icing sugar or powdered sugar or confectioners sugar. This is the most easy way of decorating the pound cake.

If you come across something interesting than mentioned here, please feel free to drop a comment below. I would love to hear from you!

Pound cake - Storing and freezing instructions

Storing Instructions:

You can easily store at room temperature or in refrigerator. It stays on up to 3 days if kept at room temperature and stays fine up to 8-10 days if kept in refrigerator. Just make sure to keep it in air tight container.

Freezing Instructions:

You can make in advance and freeze this buttery old-fashioned pound cake. First, tightly wrap the cake with cling wrap and then with aluminum foil. It stays ok up to months in freezer. Thaw it on kitchen counter overnight so that butter will come to room temperature and enjoy!

Please refer storage type in tabular form below:

Sr. No.	Storage Type	Number of days/months it stays fresh
1	Room Temperature	3
2	Refrigerator	8-10
3	Freezer	1-2 months

Pro tips for the perfect old-fashioned pound cake

1. Use room temperature ingredients: Make sure to bring your butter and eggs at room temperature. Cold butter will not mix properly with sugar. So, we may overmix the butter and sugar and this will result in dense pound cake.
   
   Also, this pound cake does not use any rising agents such as baking powder or baking soda. Eggs are the only leavening agent used here and it incorporates air into the batter that will expand later in oven.
   
   So, it is very important to bring the eggs to room temperature.
2. Do not overmix: Overmixing the batter will result into dense pound cake. So, mix the flour until just combined.
3. Measure your ingredients properly: Baking is a science where each ingredient reacts with other. So, it is very important to measure your ingredients correctly. Little bit of here and there and it will ruin your cake.
4. Keep your pan ready: The loaf pan should be greased before you start preparing the batter. Because with many of the recipes, it is not recommended to keep it at kitchen counter for long time and it is required to get the batter straight into the oven.
   
   Alternatively, you can also cover the pan from inside with parchment paper and then spray it with cooking spray or grease it with butter or vegetable shortening.

Old-fashioned pound cake video tutorial

https://youtu.be/8FN4uRasfZM?si=3oyXBDY8nitxFLvp

FAQ's

How do you store it?

Please refer my storing and freezing instructions above.

Can you freeze this cake?

Please refer my storing and freezing instructions above.

How can you make it moist?

This is a traditional old-fashioned pound cake and this takes all the moistness especially from eggs and butter. So, make sure to measure your ingredients properly. Also, overbake will make your pound cake dry. So, always check your cake doneness 5-10 minutes before actual baking time. The reason behind this is each oven is different and your oven might take less than mine.

How do I make a good pound cake that's not dry?

Two things to remember to make a good pound cake which is not dry are:
1. Measure ingredients properly
2. Do not overbake. Check the cake 5-10 minutes before actual baking time. Cake is done when toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Why does my pound cake look wet in middle?

There can two issues with cake being wet in middle.
1. Cake is not baked enough.
2. Oven is not heating up evenly.
Try baking it for few more minutes and check again.

How much does a typical pound cake weigh?

This old-fashioned pound cake contains one pound of each ingredient. So, it weighs approximately 4 pounds.

My pound cake turned out very eggy. What went wrong?

This is mostly because using more eggs or overcooking the cake. More eggs meaning egg weight is more than mentioned. I have mentioned all the details regarding weighing an egg in my ingredients section.

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Recipe card