Grandma Old Fashioned Pound Cake Recipe (2024)

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Grandma Old Fashioned Pound cake recipe is a Southern classic. This old-school recipe has just 5 ingredients and makes a velvety soft, buttery cake with that famous, crowd-pleasing crusty top!

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GRANDMA OLD FASHIONED POUND CAKE

Pound cakes are simple and uncomplicated, as they should be. This recipe is buttery, soft, and sweet. It’s dense yet velvety soft, moist, and melts in your mouth. There is nothing dry or crumbly about this cake unless you overcook it.

INGREDIENTS YOU’LL NEED FOR THIS CLASSIC POUND CAKE

This is just an overview of the ingredients I used. The full recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions is at the bottom of this post. You can save a tree and save the recipe to your personal and private recipe box right here on Call Me PMc. This way you’ll never misplace it as well as help the planet.

Most noteworthy, there is no baking powder or baking soda in this pound cake. It’s leavened traditionally with only eggs.

Granulated sugar.
Butter. At room temperature. Real butter, not margarine. You can substitute solid vegetable shortening. Shortening will affect the taste slightly.
Large eggs or the equivalent. At room temperature. Eggs will make this cake rise. You do not need baking soda or baking powder in this cake.
All-purpose flour. You can use cake flour, but ap flour is closer to what they used ‘back in the day’.
Whole milk. At room temperature. Almond or coconut, 1% or 2% milk won’t give it the same flavor and texture.

CAN I MAKE OLD-FASHIONED POUND CAKE IN A LOAF PAN?

Yes, you’ll need three 8×4-inch loaf pansto accommodate this recipe.

HOW DO I MAKE A MOIST POUND CAKE? MY POUND CAKE WAS DRY.

The most important thing when baking your pound cake is to make sure that you do NOT over-bake it.

Your pound cake will continue to cook for a few minutes after you remove it from the oven. To ensure a soft, tender cake, try to catch your cake slightly before it’s done. Look for the skewer to come out with a few moist crumbs and immediately remove it from the oven.

WHY DID MY POUND CAKE OVERFLOW?

This pound cake recipe will not overflow if prepared as written and baked in the correct size pan.

For example, do not substitute self-rising flour or add baking powder to this recipe or it could overflow.

Furthermore, I use a 10-inch tube pan. Alternatively, you can use a 12-cup bundt pan. Check your pan size if you don’t 100% sure of the size. Tube pans and bundt pans do not come in a standard, one-size only.

HOW DO I SERVE GRANDMA OLD FASHIONED POUND CAKE?

The popularity of Pound Cakes in part is their versatility. You can enjoy them plain, with ice cream, caramel sauce, chocolate, or a fruit sauce. I really enjoy this tartRaspberry Sauce(orstrawberry sauce) andvanillaice cream.

TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL POUND CAKE

As with most baking, make sure yourbutteris at room temperature and soft. It will indent easily when mashed with your finger, but not be oily.
Your eggs and other dairy ingredients also need to be at roomtemperature. They will incorporate much easier into the other ingredients at room temperature, making for a lighter, fluffiercake.
Measure your flour correctly using the ‘spoon and level’ method.I wrotethis post on how to measure flour correctly, you may want to refresh yourself if needed. Measuring flour incorrectly can result in as much as 150% more flour than is called for! #ThatsALot
Use good quality ingredients. Read some of the differences in name-brand and store-bought ingredientshere. Use realbutter, not margarine. I use salted butter. You can use salted orunsalted butterdepending on your personal preference.

I wrote the recipe in the recipe section below as clearly and descriptively as possible. Before making Grandma’s Old Fashioned Pound Cake recipe, read it over at least twice so you know where you’re going and what’s next.

MORE POUND CAKE YOU’RE SURE TO ENJOY

Amaretto Peach Upside Down Pound Cake
10 Ridiculously Easy Pound Cake recipes
Coffee Cake Pound Cake
Orange Creamsicle Pound Cake

GRANDMA OLD FASHIONED POUND CAKE

This old-school recipe has just 5 ingredients and makes a velvety soft, buttery cake with that famous, crowd-pleasing crusty top!

Author: Paula

5 from 17 votes

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Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 18 servings

Ingredients

2 cups *butter at room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs at room temperature
4 cups all-purpose flour
⅔ cups milk
2 tablespoons vanilla extract or almond extract (optional)

Instructions

You do not need baking soda or baking powder in this cake. Eggs are the leavener.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175 degrees C). (If you haven't calibrated your oven recently, I recommend you calibrate your oven once a year. For info read:How to Calibrate your Oven.)
Coat a10-inchtube panor 12-cupbundt panwithsolid vegetable shorteningandsugarorWilton cake releasespray.
In thebowlofanelectric mixer, creambutterand sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides. Mix again.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stop mixer and scrape sides. Mix again.
Beat in flour alternately with vanilla and milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter evenly into the prepared pan and smooth the top. (This is a thick batter.)
Bake in the preheated 350°F oven until a wooden pick (like a skewer or cake tester, inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out with moist crumbs or no crumbs. (Watch it closely. Every oven bakes differently. As well the pan you use affects cooking times.) If using a thermometer, the internal temperature of the cake will be 200°F when fully cooked.
When the cake is done cooking, remove it from the oven and use abutterknife to loosen the cake around the edges of the pan as well as the center hole. Set the cake on awire rackto cool in the pan for 25 to 30 minutes, then turn it out onto awire rackto cool completely. (I double-flip my cake so that the top is the top.)
Serve warm or cool. Store in an airtight container either on the countertop or fridge.

Notes

*You can use salted or unsalted, your preference.

Odd as it may seem, you can actually omit the extract (flavoring). If omitted the cake with have a mellow butter flavor. Originally, the extract wasn't used often because it was expensive and hard to get at times.

With that being said, I prefer to add either vanilla or almond extract (or 1 tablespoon of each.).

Nutrition

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