This pound cake is rich, dense, lightly sweet, so fragrant with butter and vanilla. In other words, simple and perfect. There are many ways to bake and present this recipe besides the traditional plain bundt cake (which is wonderful too!). I love to take it up a notch and bake them as small cakes, in individual jumbo muffin pans or charlotte molds, shown here filled with my hack crème anglaise (fancy word for a thin custard) and berries! Or go smaller and bake them in regular size cupcake pans. I've also baked them in cake pans, and iced them like a traditional layer cake. Try a decadent french toast out of the cake, it's phenomenal! Some of my recipes for other fillings and sauces for this cake are in the links below.
BUTTER POUND CAKE RECIPE
Prep Time: 20 minutes Yield: One bundt cake or 8 small cakes
One pound of butter, softened
3 cups granulated (white) sugar
6 eggs, at room temperature (put chilled eggs in a bowl of very warm water for a few minutes to bring them to room temperature)
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour, fork sifted with 1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup heavy cream mixed with 2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place oven rack in upper 2/3 of oven.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, or with a large bowl hand held electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the sugar, a cup at a time, beating a minute or two, on medium speed, until light and fluffy.
Add flour/salt to creamed mixture, alternately with the cream/lemon juice, mixing well. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts. Batter will be thick.
Using an ice cream scoop, add batter 3/4 way full in greased and floured charlotte molds or jumbo muffin pans. Gently smooth top of batter with a spoon. Hint: If using charlotte molds, place them, evenly spaced apart, on a sheet pan, then fill with batter and bake.
Bake individual cakes for approximately 45-55 minutes, or until golden brown and the top of cake springs back when touched. If baking the batter in a traditional bundt cake pan, bake for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes, or until golden brown and the top of cake springs back when touched.
Cool on wire rack for 15-20 minutes, then unmold the cake(s) once the pans are very warm to the touch.
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To fill pound cakes, either slice in half horizontally, or cut a conical shape from the top of the pound cake. Fill with sliced berries, crème anglaise (mock or from scratch) and whipped cream.
Here are links to a few other sauces you can enjoy with the cakes:
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