Perfect Poundcake

Hello! I have finally nailed down the formula for what my family believes is the perfect poundcake. It has amazing flavor. It isn’t overly dense. It has just the right crumb.

Poundcake can be tricky. If you aren’t careful you can end up with a very dense cake. Nobody wants that. It can brown too quickly on the outside without the center being done. Some just flat out lack in flavor. Well, I’m going to share my tips and tricks with you to help avoid these problems.

You may think it’s not worth all this fuss, but believe me it is. You are going to end up with an amazing cake that everyone will be raving about.

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 sticks salted butter (at room temperature)

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs (at room temperature)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk (at room temperature)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

Ok. Let’s do this!

Preheat your oven to 350°

Lightly grease a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan. Use baking spray (I use Baker’s Joy) or butter and flour.

In a large bowl, beat the butter until very light, 2-3 minutes.

Beat in the sugar gradually and then the eggs, one by one. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and beat until the mixture is very light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.

When you cream (beat) butter, it may seem at the beginning as if you’re just mashing it flat. But if you persevere, you’ll begin to see it get fluffy. What you’re really doing is adding air. When you beat the butter with sugar, it becomes even fluffier, evidence of more air. And when the eggs are beaten in, the fluffiness is at its peak. That’s why this part of the mixing is so important. The more air bubbles you can beat in at this stage, the more air bubbles there are to expand in the heat of the oven. Baking powder or soda can do part of the work of leavening, but the more air bubbles you can get into a batter manually, the finer and lighter the texture of the finished cake.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In another small bowl, whisk together the milk and extracts.

Alternately add the wet and dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Stir to combine after each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.

Bake the cake for 60 to 65 minutes, until it springs back when pressed lightly in on top, and a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

If the cake appears to be browning too quickly, tent it with foil for the final 15 minutes of baking.

Remove the cake from the oven, and loosen its edges. Wait 5 minutes, then carefully turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool.

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Thanks for stopping by!