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This Easy Pound Cake Recipe is always a crowd pleaser! It’s rich, with incredible texture. It’s tender, moist and dense with vanilla flavor.
You’ll make this Traditional Pound Cake again and again – it’s perfect for Easter, Mother’s Day, birthdays, or an incredible treat! It’s moist, delicious and made with just 6 staple ingredients!
I tend to gravitate toward desserts that are just as beautiful as they are delicious. This Pound Cake is no exception. This isn’t the dried out pound cake that you find pre-packaged in convenience stores or made months in advance at America’s favorite coffee cafe. It’s a rich, traditional pound cake with incredible texture which results in a beautiful slice, every time.
Table of Contents
Easy Pound Cake Recipe
You can make Pound Cake from scratch in a few simple steps. This ultimate crowd pleasing dessert takes 10 minutes hands on time to make! It comes together so quickly, yet feels so special!
I often make pound cake in a traditional loaf pan, but you can make it in a bundt pan, or one of my favorite specialty pans for added interest. You can also make pound cake in various shapes for holidays and seasons like bunnies, beehives, and more!
Traditional Pound Cake Ingredients
Like many of my recipes, this Easy Pound Cake recipe is made of staple ingredients, with just a few minutes hands on time. Traditional Pound Cake is made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, milk and vanilla. Six staple ingredients, one great cake you’ll make again and again!
Traditionally Pound Cake was made with a pound of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. This pound cake is made in a loaf pan, requiring less of each ingredient with the same great flavor!
This recipe has been adapted from the Million Dollar Pound Cake recipe which makes significantly more and uses almond extract.
Variations
Use the extract of your choice to change the flavor. Some options include almond extract, lemon extract, orange extract and rum extract.
Glazes
To see how simple this Easy Pound Cake Recipe is, watch the video in this post.
This recipe is for a traditional pound cake using vanilla extract. However, it’s a recipe so easy to adapt seasonally by substituting vanilla for the extract of your choice. The options are endless! You can find some of my favorite variations below.
How to Make Pound Cake
- Prep – Grease 1 pound bread pan and preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Fluff – In a mixing bowl, beat the butter until light in color (about 3 minutes). Gradually incorporate sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time and blend in on low, careful not to over mix.
- Alternate adding flour and milk, add vanilla until smooth.
- Bake – Pour into bread pan and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack
- Glaze – Use a classic glaze or cream cheese glaze.
Don’t over mix. This prevents the air in the mixture from deflating. Egg acts as a leavening agent.
While this recipe is so easy, there are some secretes to make the best Pound Cake!
Tips
- First, bring butter (and eggs) to room temperature. – cold butter doesn’t beat as evenly. You’ll notice that this Easy Pound Cake Recipe doesn’t use a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. When you beat the butter until light in color. It incorporates air into the butter which helps it increase in volume.
- Beat in the sugar until it’s light and fluffy. The fat (butter) and sugar hold air bubbles to create a fine texture and leaven the cake.
- Bringing eggs to room temperature will provide a really smooth texture to the cake.
- Don’t over beat. Beat eggs one at a time. This will prevent the batter from curdling and prevent the air in the mixture from deflating.
- As with all cakes, it’s best if you mix dry ingredients together. This will result in a fine texture, ensuring all lumps are broken up and a nice even bake.
- Bake time can vary from oven to oven, so use the toothpick test to determine the optimal baking time for your oven. (Approximately 1 hour, 20 minutes)
This recipe has been adapted from the Million Dollar Pound Cake recipe which makes significantly more and uses almond extract. Of course it’s best served drenched in glaze which is equally easy to make. It hardens just enough to get the perfect slice, but is still soft in texture and taste.
Pound Cake is amazing on its own and of course, covered in glaze, but you can also dust it in powdered sugar. Berries also make the perfect compliment – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.
One of the many things I love about Pound Cake is that it keeps well. You can enjoy a slice now and enjoy the remainder for snacks (or breakfast, I won’t judge).
How to Store Pound Cake
- Room Temperature – To prevent it from drying out, store (cooled) in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerate – Pound Cake can be store refrigerated up to 4 days as well. Wrap with plastic wrap and store in an airtight container or bag.
- Freeze – Wrap in plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag to prevent any freezer odor from seeping in. Bring to room temperature to enjoy.
Pound Cake is so versatile, flavorful and perfect for any occasion, it should be of no surprise that I have a variety of pound cake recipes for every season! Each are equally easy and amazing!
Did you make this? Rate the recipe and tag me on social @julieblanner!
Easy Pound Cake Recipe
This Easy Pound Cake Recipe is always a crowd pleaser! It's rich, with incredible texture. It's tender, moist and dense with vanilla flavor. You'll make this Traditional Pound Cake again and again – it's perfect for Easter, Mother's Day, birthdays, or an incredible treat! It's moist, delicious and made with just 6 staple ingredients!
Yield
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1½ cups white granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Grease 1 pound bread pan and preheat oven to 300°F.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter until light in color (about 3 minutes). Gradually incorporate sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time. Blend in on low.
- Alternate adding flour and milk, add vanilla until smooth.
- Pour into bread pan and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. When the toothpick comes out clean, it is done.
- Allow to cool and top with glaze if desired.
Tips
Substitutions
- Butter – Salted or unsalted, your preference.
- Milk – Whatever you have on hand.
- Extract – Use almond, lemon or orange to mix up the flavor.
Variations
Add a Glaze Fold Ins- Chocolate Chips
- Nuts
- Dried Fruits
Tips
- Bring Ingredients to Room Temperature – Cold butter doesn’t beat as evenly. You’ll notice that this Easy Pound Cake Recipe doesn’t use a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. When you you beat the butter until light in color. It incorporates air into the butter which helps it increase in volume. Bringing eggs to room temperature will provide a really smooth texture to the cake.
- Make it Fluffy – Beat in the sugar until it’s light and fluffy. The fat (butter) and sugar hold air bubbles to create a fine texture and leaven the cake.
- Don’t Over Beat – Beat eggs one at a time. This will prevent the batter from curdling and prevent the air in the mixture from deflating.
- Combine Dry Ingredients First – As with all cakes, it’s best if you mix dry ingredients together. This will result in a fine texture, ensuring all lumps are broken up and a nice even bake.
- Test Bake Time – Bake time can vary from oven to oven, so use the toothpick test to determine the optimal baking time for your oven. (Approximately 1 hour, 20 minutes)
To Store
- Room Temperature – To prevent it from drying out, store (cooled) in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerate – Pound Cake can be store refrigerated up to 4 days as well. Wrap with plastic wrap and store in an airtight container or bag.
- Freeze – Wrap in plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag to prevent any freezer odor from seeping in. Bring to room temperature to enjoy.
Video
Nutrition Information
Calories: 241kcal (12%), Carbohydrates: 50g (17%), Protein: 5g (10%), Fat: 2g (3%), Saturated Fat: 1g (5%), Cholesterol: 51mg (17%), Sodium: 29mg (1%), Potassium: 69mg (2%), Fiber: 1g (4%), Sugar: 31g (34%), Vitamin A: 101IU (2%), Calcium: 32mg (3%), Iron: 1mg (6%)
Estimated nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed.
Lauren says
What temperature do I set the oven for?
Julie says
300
Jenny says
Would like to try this recipe, do you use salted butter?
Julie says
I do just as a rule of thumb, but unsalted is just fine! Enjoy!
Mara says
Maded the cake on Sat. Yummy
Julie says
I’m glad you enjoyed it as much as we do, Mara! Thanks for sharing!
Pam says
Julie, My mother and aunts used to make Cream Cheese Poundcake. The crust was kind of crunchy, but oh my….. good stuff! Yours looks yummy too, and your photos are awesome!
Julie says
That sounds fantastic! Have a beautiful weekend!
pamela says
Thank you for the recipe, the cake looks yummy.
Have a great day