Spiced Pound Cake
Submitted by amaturecook1
Spiced pound cake with mace, vanilla, and almond extract baked in a Bundt pan until golden and dense. Powdered sugar in the batter creates an ultra-fine, velvety crumb that melts on your tongue.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
75 minREADY
105 minThis pound cake follows the classic formula of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, but adds a quiet warmth with mace (or nutmeg) and a floral note from almond extract that sets it apart from a plain vanilla version. The spice is subtle, more of a background hum than a punch, which is exactly right for a cake this rich.
What makes the texture stand out is the use of powdered sugar instead of granulated. Powdered sugar dissolves completely into the butter during creaming, producing an exceptionally fine, tight crumb with no graininess. The result is a cake that’s dense in the best way: moist, buttery, and almost velvety when you bite through it.
Adding eggs one at a time and alternating the flour with milk keeps the batter emulsified and smooth. Rushing either step risks a broken batter that bakes up heavy and tunneled.
Pro Tips
- Cream the butter and powdered sugar until genuinely light and fluffy. This can take 4-5 minutes with a stand mixer. It aerates the batter and determines the cake’s rise.
- Sift the flour before measuring. Pound cake has no leavener, so a heavy hand with flour will make it dense in the wrong way.
- Test one inch from the edge, not the center. The center of a Bundt cake stays moist longer and can fool you into overbaking.
- Cool in the pan for the full 10 minutes. Turn it out too soon and the cake cracks.
Variations
- Drizzle with a simple lemon glaze for brightness against the buttery crumb.
- Replace mace with cardamom for a Scandinavian-inspired twist.
- Fold in a cup of fresh blueberries tossed in flour for a fruited summer version.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 325℉ (160℃).
Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or 12-cup bundt pan.
Cream butter and sugar together in mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Blend in vanilla and almond extracts.
Sift flour, mace, or nutmeg and salt together; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Mix well after each addition.
Spoon batter into prepared pan.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted one inch from edge comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes; turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.
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