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. 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.
Ilyse
Would this be good with a hibiscus glaze? Wanted to make for my sons birthday.
Sam
That is going to be a personal preference, but I think it could be good. 🙂
Ms Vee
I doubled the vanilla extract because I wanted a more robust vanilla flavor. The cake turned out PERFECTLY!!! MOIST, BUTTERY, AND DELICIOUS!!!
Tonya L Sutter
my tummy hurts I ate such a big piece and it was worth it! ☺️
Leisa
Love this cake can you use 2sticks of unsalted butter an 2 sticks of sweet butter
Sam
Hi Leisa! That will work. You will want to cut the salt by 1/2 teaspoon to account for the extra salt in the butter. 🙂
Mia
This is the driest cake I’ve ever made in my life I wasted all the ingredients the only thing that was missing was some kind of leveling powder you need it to rise to make it creamy
Sam
Hi Mia, there shouldn’t be a leavening agent in this recipe, that’s intentional and would not make the cake creamy at all, but would make it airy which would directly contradict the result that you want with this recipe. Unfortunately it sounds like the cake was over-baked if it was dry (could your oven be running hot?), though it’s also possible the flour was accidentally over-measured. 🙁
Nadège
I made it! Came out dry! So guess my oven temps needs adjustment for next time or cook less longer than instructed. But I must say it was very good. Ate with berries and whipped cream!
I don’t have a stand mixer so o first blended the sugar before mixing with the butter, lol! Got to do what you gotta do!
Thanks for this recipe!
Now I have to find something to do with the egg white! Not a baker and don’t want to waste!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! You can always make meringue cookies, or my white cake with the egg whites. 🙂
Tonya L Sutter
I made this. Followed the exact recipe okay guys! Perfect! I did cover my baking dish with a piece of buttered parchment during baking. Also bc I’d made a pineapple upside down cake last month for my mom, and kind’ve had that on my brain, I did pull some old frozen fruit from the back of my freezer, mixed it with brown sugar, poured it in the bottom of my baking dish, then poured the cake batter over that. Turned out just fine.
This is a great recipe. When you taste it, you’ll be transported to pound cake, even shortbread-ish type memories of granny!
Meredith T Dalton
Have you tried a chocolate version? Wondering if reducing flour and affing that much cocoa powder if that would work. 🤔
Sam
Hi Meredith! I have a chocolate bundt cake, which is pretty similar. 🙂
Robin
I’m going to try this recipe EXACTLY AS IT IS. ALSO, I am wondering how you think it may work out subbing one or two sticks of the butter for some cream cheese?? I have a recipe like this with all butter (but not the extra egg yolks) but you put two sticks of butter and two packages of cream cheese!
Thanks Sam
Sam
Hi Robin! You can substitute an 8 oz brick of cream cheese for one of the sticks (1/2 cup) of butter, no problem. Just beat it in with the butter and sugar. I hope that helps, and that you enjoy the recipe!
Robin
Thank you so much Sam. I’m sure it will be delicious as all of your other recipes are.
Ruthie
I’ve been looking for a yummy pound cake recipe, yours stood out to me so im definitely going to try it..
Jerry Sheffield
I have made this wonderful pound cake for many family occasions but would love to scale it back to 10x5x3 loaf pan. It is one and half pound loaf pan, just need the % number to scale the recipe,love to be able to make this for my small family. Love your recipes recipes and videos.
Jerry S.
Sam
Hi Jerry! I’m not sure on the exact percentage, but if it helps, I know this typically fills 2 standard 9 x 5 pans. 🙂
V. Mock
I made the pound cake yesterday and substituted wheat flour. This was the most delicious, dense cakes ever. My fiancé and I dove into this cake. The cake is so rich and delicious.
Pam Smith
This is a delicious pound cake. It is now one of my family’s favorite. ❤️
Nancy
Can the sugar be subbed with honey?
Sam
Hi Nancy! Unfortunately, I worry it wouldn’t work out too well. 🙁
Tia
Delicious recipe. However it took 1 1/2 hrs. Baking time at 350 degrees.
Gisela P
I used a toothpick but now I’m investing in wooden skewers.. what was baked was delicious so will definitely try again
Angel
Can I half this and bake in a loaf pan?
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
Bonnie
Have you ever made this into an 8″ layer cake?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Bonnie! We haven’t tried this recipe with 8″ pans, so we can’t advise on bake time. It will make quite a lot of batter and will likely fill three or more 8″ pans.
Sydney
If I want to use a 9” round cake pan, how long would you recommend baking? Thanks!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sydney! We haven’t made this recipe in a 9″ pan, so unfortunately we aren’t sure on a bake time. Make sure to not overfill your pan and keep an eye on it so it doesn’t over-bake. Also note that this recipe makes quite a lot of batter, much more than will fill one 9″ cake pan. You will probably be able to fill three pans, if not more.
Gisela P
I made this recipe however the middle was not cooked not sure what happened. When I inserted the toothpick it came out clean.
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Gisela! Did you use a wooden skewer or just a toothpick? The toothpick may not have been long enough to reach the center of the cake. 🙂
Summer
my first attempt at pound cake and it was a success 😁. I really like this cake it’s delicious