Ann's Pound Cake
Submitted by brandy
Classic butter pound cake: rich, tender, golden loaf made the proper old-fashioned way with butter, sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla. Just five ingredients and a long, careful cream.
YIELD
12 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
1¼ hrsREADY
2 hrsThis is pound cake in its most honest form. Five ingredients, no chemical leaveners, no shortcuts. The cake rises through the air whipped into the butter and sugar during creaming, which is why the 5-minute beat at the start is the recipe’s most important step. Skip the time on the creaming and the cake bakes dense and heavy instead of tender and tall.
The proper creaming method is the technique that defines pound cake. Butter must be at true room temperature, not refrigerator-cold and not melty-warm. Beating it alone first until “very light and creamy” before adding sugar starts the air incorporation. Then the sugar goes in gradually with another full 5 minutes of beating, which dissolves the sugar crystals and continues whipping in air. Skipping this builds zero structure.
Adding eggs one at a time matters more than novice bakers realize. Each egg gets fully incorporated before the next goes in, maintaining the emulsion you’ve built with butter and sugar. Dumping all five eggs in at once breaks the emulsion and you end up with a curdled-looking batter that bakes into a dense cake.
Folding the dry ingredients in just until smooth (not beating them) preserves the air structure you’ve spent so much time building. Over-mixing at this stage activates gluten and produces a tough, rubbery cake. Stop the moment the streaks of flour disappear.
Pro Tips
- Sift the flour and salt together before measuring for the most accurate ratio.
- Bring eggs to room temperature for the smoothest emulsion. Cold eggs cause the butter to seize.
- Don’t open the oven during the first 45 minutes of baking. The temperature drop collapses the rise.
- Cool on a rack 10 minutes before removing from the pan to prevent the cake from tearing.
Variations
- Substitute lemon zest and 1 tablespoon lemon juice for the vanilla for a brighter lemon pound cake.
- Add 1 teaspoon of almond extract along with the vanilla for a more complex flavor.
- Glaze with a simple powdered sugar icing flavored with lemon, orange or maple.
- Serve sliced with fresh berries and softly whipped cream for an old-fashioned dessert.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven 325℉ (160℃). Lightly grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
Sift together the flour and salt. Set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until very light and creamy.
Add the sugar gradually and continue beating for 5 minutes until mixture is very fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla or lemon zest and juice.
Fold in the dry ingredients, mixing just until the batter is smooth and blended. Spoon into the prepared pan.
Bake for 1¼ hours, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a rack for about 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan. Cool thoroughly and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
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