Old-fashioned Pound Cake Recipe

Tap to Read ➤ Marian K

Someone mentions pound cake and everyone is flooded with memories of sitting in grandma's kitchen and relishing some delicious homemade pound cake. Here is a recipe for this old-fashioned pound cake!

Pound cake received its name from the original cake recipe that used one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. The perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea, this cake is rich and buttery, with a gorgeous golden brown crust. While some like to savor the sole taste of a slice of pound cake, many enjoy it with whipped cream or ice cream.

Original Pound Cake

Ingredient

1 cup heavy cream 2 sticks/1 cup unsalted butter plus some for buttering the pan (softened) 2 tsp. vanilla extract 3 cups cake flour plus some for dusting (not self-rising; sift before measuring) 6 large eggs, at room temperature for about 30 minutes ¾ tsp. salt 3 cups sugar

Preparation

Use a 10" tube pan (4½'' deep) or a 10'' bundt pan (3¼ inches deep) for this recipe. Place the oven rack in the middle position. Grease the baking pan with butter and lightly scatter some flour over it, shaking off the excess. In a wide shallow dish, add the salt to the sifted flour (3 cups), and then sift the flour once again.

You need to sift the flour 3 times. Cream the butter (2 sticks) and sugar in a large bowl until you get a good amount of air into it. You get great results after about 6-8 minutes of whirling with a handheld mixer, at medium-high speed.

Now gradually drop in the eggs, one at a time. After all the eggs are added, blend in the vanilla extract, and lower the speed of the mixer to low, before adding the flour. Follow this with all the cream, and finally the remaining flour.

Ensure that you blend well, after each addition. Keep scraping all the batter that sticks to the side of the bowl and dumping it in the middle while mixing. Give the batter one final one minute whirl at medium-high speed.

Now pour the creamy, satiny batter into the prepared baking dish and gently bang the dish on the work surface once or twice to get rid of air bubbles. Place the dish in the oven and turn on the heat to 350 °F.

Within about an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes, the cake should turn golden and a wooden pick or skewer pierced into the center of the cake should come out with a few crumbs stuck to it. However, if you keep checking it this way, you could take it out earlier if you feel that it is done.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a rack for at least 30 minutes. Gently run a knife around the inner and outer edges of the cake to separate it from the dish, and then invert the dish onto the rack. Your delectable pound cake is ready to eat!

This old-fashioned pound cake recipe is tried and tested with rave reviews. A different way to enjoy this pound cake is to toast it. Better yet, turn it into a sinfully rich, grilled pound cake. Prepare the batter by beating an egg with two tablespoons each of milk and Grand Marnier.

Now, just like you would do while preparing a French toast recipe, dip each slice of cake into this mixture, and brown each side on the grill. Serve it for dessert, along with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, and your guests will think they've died and gone to heaven!