Vanilla Pound Cake Recipe
Hi friends! How are you guys? How are we in the middle of September already?? I know we say this every year but summer flew by!! It was a great summer on my end (hope it was for you too!) and now it is time to embrace the next season. It’s officially baking season. This vanilla pound cake is the recipe I started my season with and a classic cake recipe that I think you will enjoy for years to come. It is simple, soft, crumbly and just a wonderful pound cake.
Fall is actually my favorite season of all for so many reasons. The crisp fall weather, the wearing of scarves and sweater, the foliage and oh how I love fall baking. Everything about the warming spices and the flavors brings me joy! I can’t wait.
As I was browsing through my fall magazines in my baking rut, I spotted a pound cake recipe in a recent issue of Bake from Scratch that was doing a spotlight on the bundt pan. The story was an all-American one about an immigrant family in Minnesota who started a family business of making bundt pans to bake cakes from their heritage. Years later, almost every home baker owns Nordicware, the iconic bundt cake pan. Reading this story inspired me to put my newly purchased heritage Nordicware pan to use. The magazine shared the family’s traditional German pound cake recipe and that’s the recipe I am sharing here with you today. It is not my recipe but a recipe that pulled me from my baking rut as I was feeling uninspired.
As I said, it is a simple honest cake. One of those that you know your grandmother baked with lots of love. It starts like any pound cake recipe – beating and creaming your butter and sugar very well to aerate the butter. This recipe goes a step further to separate the eggs. Egg yolks are beaten into the batter but egg whites are whipped to stiff peaks and then folded into the batter bringing in a whole lot of air that is going to translate into a very light, airy and fluffy cake.
This vanilla pound cake is exactly that. Light, airy, fluffy with a delicate crumb. The flavors of buttery cake with hints of vanilla and almond are apparent in every bite. Served simply with a dust of confectioner’s sugar (or a drizzle of icing), this is a cake you want to keep close in your recipe box. It’s perfect for celebrations, dinner parties and just when you feel like baking something great for yourself.
And if you haven’t yet and you are a baking enthusiast like myself, get yourself a copy of Bake from Scratch magazine. It is currently my favorite baking magazine for inspiration and drooling over beautifully photographed baked goods and spotlights of desserts around the world.
Happy Baking Season!
Vanilla Pound Cake
This vanilla pound cake is a light, airy, fluffy cake with a delicate crumb.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 4 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan with baking spray.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until light and creamy about 3 minutes on medium speed. Gradually add in the granulated sugar and confectioners sugar to the butter.. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 8 minutes on medium speed. Add the egg yolks, one at time and mixing in between until combined, scraping down bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla and almond extract.
- In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together three times. Reduce mixer to low. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk, beating until just combined after each addition. Transfer the batter to a large bowl and clean out your mixer bowl.
- With the whisk attachment, beat the eggs whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 to 1.5 hours. (Be sure to keep an eye on it as it could bake faster depending on the size of your bundt pan).
- Let cake cool in pan for at least 10 0 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Let cool completely.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.
Notes
Cake adapted from Bake from Scratch
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As simple as it may be, I luuurrvveee a good pound cake. No shame in that!
Classics are always good for a reason!
Hi hun, I wanted to confirm on the egg portion of the recipe we are supposed to use just the egg yolk correct?
Hi Caitlyn, you use both egg yolks and egg whites. Step 4 of the instructions shows you what to do with the egg white.
Hello,
I currently have this cake in the oven. I did run into a snag. The ingredients do not mention milk, however the instructions include alternating milk. Should milk be included?
Thank you!
Hi Jen – I apologize for the confusion and typo. There is 1 cup of milk in the recipe card.
Hey Zainab, how about I make it with half of everything? My bundt pan is smaller so I wanna try a smaller sized cake first 😋
You can cut the recipe in half for sure! Let me know how you like it.
Hi Zainab
Can this recipe be made as a birthday cake please
Hi Kafayat, are you asking whether you can bake this cake in a round cake pan to make a layer cake? If so, I have not tested the recipe that way but I see no reason why you can’t!
Oo Janice
Can I have the ingredients in grams
Hi Salome, feel free to use your favorite conversion calculator to convert the ingredients to grams.
I would love make a strawberry pound cake with fresh strawberry can not find a good recipe
I, unfortunately, do not have one but love the idea and will have to create one for us!
I just baked this cake and it was done in less than an hour. I preheated the oven like the instructions said. Most pound cakes are started in a cold oven. It turned out delicious but I’m wondering if I did something wrong since it cooked so fast.
Hi Martha! So glad to hear the cake was delicious. I have never baked a pound cake that starts with a cold oven. You can choose to bake at a lower temperature such as 325 degrees F however it would take longer. I think it depends on how hot your oven gets. Do you have an oven thermometer? Sometimes even though you set it to a temp it may run hotter or cooler.
About to try this cake in a few mins!!!
Could this be made in a tube pan?
I don’t have a Bundt.
If so, what about baking time?
Yes, it can be made in a tube pan however you will have to experiment with the baking time as I have not tested it in your pan. I would suggest checking the cake frequently to be sure you are not over baking.
I only have lactose free reduced fat milk… will that work instead of whole milk?
Hi Katherin, these are tough times for fresh dairy. Use the milk you have and it will work. It may not be the same texture but I think you will love it!
As with a few others, my cake was done in one hour. It could have probably been in for 50-55 minutes. I have just finished baking and have not had a chance to try a taste yet.
I would definitely not bake this for 90 minutes and walk away. I used a Bundt pan, Teflon coated, 350 preheat oven. Since this was my first time baking a cake in this oven I set the timer for one hour. So very glad that I did.
Can’t wait to try it.
Made this today and it was so delicious and light! I used 2% milk and it was fully baked in 55 mins. Thanks for the yummy recipe!
That’s amazing! Glad you loved the recipe and the baking time aligns with what I get as well.
Baked this today as directed. Ready in 1 hour using a 12” Bundt pan. Beautiful texture. Topping with fresh strawberries and whipped topping.
That’s great to hear!! Topping with strawberries is a good idea.
Concerning the Vanilla Pound Cake…
My Daughter and Grandson are both allergic to almonds. 2 questions:
1. Should I be concerned about the almond extract?
2. Will leaving it out change the whole cake?
yes, be concerned about the almond extract. and no, it will not change the whole cake. Please let the almond extract out.
Hi!! Just took my cake out of the oven after 1 hr 10 min. I used a tube pan, 2% lactose free milk, 3 tsp of vanilla extract and no almond and no additional salt as I used salted butter. Yuuummmyyyyy!!!
So glad to hear this Krystal!!
Hi, Just a question. Can I substitute Cake Flour for All- purpose Flour ?
Thank you. Can’t wait to try.
Hi Kathleen, I haven’t tried this substitution so I can’t speak to the exact results. The cake flour will give a different texture and crumb but i think it would work if you’d like to try it.
I just made this cake and it was an easy make so light and smells so good baking in the oven!!Will make a strawberry blueberry sauce then whipped cream topping!!! Thank you for the sweet recipe!!!
Ooo the berry sauce and whipped cream sound like a delicious topping! So glad to hear you liked the recipe. Thank you for sharing!!