This delicious, tender pound cake is a thing of glory! Rich, dense slices with a tender moist crumb will steal your heart! Please be careful to avoid substitutions for this recipe (ask me how I know). The magic of this cake is from the combination of butter for flavor and shorting for tenderness. Read through the recipe before you start and follow the directions for "creaming" carefully. Pound cakes live or die by attention to detail.
Prep Time20 minutesmins
Cook Time1 hourhr
Total Time1 hourhr20 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: pound cake, old fashioned pound cake, classic pound cake
Servings: 10
Calories: 678kcal
Author: Mirlandra Neuneker
Ingredients
1cupsalted butter
1/2cupshorteningplus additional for the pan
3cupssugar
1Tablespoonpure vanilla extract(or 1 teaspoon vanilla with 2 teaspoon lemon extract for more citrus flavor)
1/4teaspoonalmond extract(omit if you are using some lemon with the vanilla as above)
5large eggs
3cupsall-purpose flourplus additional for the pan
2teaspoonsbaking powder
1teaspoonsalt
1 1/4cupsbuttermilk
Instructions
Bring all cold ingredients to room temperature (butter, eggs, and buttermilk).Use shorting to grease a 10-inch tube pan (sometimes called an Angel Food Cake Pan - see note at bottom) and coat it with flour. Tap out excess flour and set aside.
In a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment beat butter and shortening at medium speed for 1 minute. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed, until light, fluffy and very pale yellow in color. This is takes five minutes. You are done when the mixture has about doubled in size. Don't over-mix which can cause the batter to "break" and prevent your cake rising correctly. Scrape sides and bottom.
Add extracts and eggs, one at a time, beating just until yoke disappears after each addition. Scrape sides and bottom after last addition.
Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add half of the flour mixture to creamed mixture. Follow by slowly adding the buttermilk and then the rest of flour, continuing to mix at low speed until combined. Scrape sides and bottom.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 75 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan. Serve with the top up. The cake is amazing alone but also excellent with whipped cream and berries or your favorite decadent chocolate sauce. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
Notes
Tube Pan versus Bundt Pan: There is wonderful debate on the internet about what constitutes a tube pan versus a Bundt pan. I have concluded that pans have different names depending on the region you learned to cook in! I'm using a 10" Calphalon brand Angel Food Cake Pan. What you need to know here is that this is a LOT of batter. Using a pan that is too small will cause the cake to fall (I know, I've done it!) and using a pan without a hole in the center will make it impossible to get the middle cooked before the outside burns.