You can choose your flavor with this incredibly simple, perfectly sweet pound cake. Go almond, lemon, or vanilla. For bake sales, we bake this cake in Nordic Ware’s Brilliance Bundt Pan with evenly spaced grooves that make for easy portioning when you slice and serve.
Are you baking this cake for our Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry? Be sure to register your bake sale here to join the cause!
Classic Vanilla Pound Cake
Serves: 1 (10-cup) Bundt cake
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (340 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
- 6 large eggs (300 grams), room temperature
- 1 tablespoon (13 grams) vanilla extract
- 3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) baking powder
- 1 cup (240 grams) whole milk, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (170°C).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition.
- Spray a 10-cup Bundt pan* with baking spray with flour. Pour batter into prepared pan. Firmly tap pan on counter to settle batter.
- Bake until a wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
*We used Nordic Ware Brilliance Bundt Pan
FLAVOR VARIATIONS:
Lemon Pound Cake: Substitute 1 tablespoon (3 grams) lemon zest for vanilla extract; add lemon zest with butter and sugar.
Almond Pound Cake: Substitute 1½ teaspoons (6 grams) almond extract for vanilla extract.
FLAVOR VARIATIONS:
Lemon Pound Cake: Substitute 1 tablespoon (3 grams) lemon zest for vanilla extract; add lemon zest with butter and sugar.
Almond Pound Cake: Substitute 1½ teaspoons (6 grams) almond extract for vanilla extract.
It’s delicious, but it’s too much for a 10 cup bundt pan, it just overflows the edge and center. I will try a 5/6th recipe next time. On the other hand, I’m baking at altitude and didn’t make any adjustments, so that could be the problem. Still 5 stars for taste!
Great forgot milk but was still delish used it for glaze
[…] 12. Classic Vanilla Pound Cake – Bake from Scratch […]
Looks wonderful! One question: If I’m baking at altitude, wich adjustments should I make? Thanks!!
Hi Natalia,
Thank you for your question! Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten a chance to test this recipe at high altitudes, and each recipe reacts to altitude a little differently. Lower air pressure at high elevations forces any air bubbles trapped in the batter to rise at a faster rate. When this happens, cakes rise very high very quickly, then often collapse. Increasing your oven temperature by 15 to 25°F and decreasing bake time will help to set the structure of the cake before it overexpands and dries out. You’ll also probably have to adjust the leaveners used in the recipe (in this case, eggs and baking powder). But, this adjustment will be dependent upon your specific elevation. And finally, you won’t want to fill your pan more than halfway, as the batter is far more likely to expand quickly and spill over the sides in higher altitudes. If you’re looking for more information, there are definitely more in-depth, high-altitude baking guides available on the Internet with more information.
Hope this helps, and happy baking!
So easy to make, this cake tastes amazing. I used a 12 c bundt pan.