Sunday Pound Cake

Sunday Pound Cake - Two Ways

It was Sunday and we were having guests twice during the day. Tea for 4 in the afternoon and dinner for 3 in the evening. The request was for pound cake for tea.. so I managed to extend the pound cake to dessert as well.

I haven't made too many pound cakes so I turned to new to me recipe. Classic Pound Cake from America's Test Kitchen The New Best Recipe Book.

According to the recipe I used:


8 Ounces of Butter
1 1/3 Cups of Sugar
3 Large Eggs
3 Large Egg Yolks
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Water
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
6 Oz of Cake Flour

The oven was heated to 325 and the loaf pan was greased and lined with parchment paper.

Sunday Pound Cake - The ingredients - except for 3 Egg Yolks

The secret to this recipe seems to be the butter has to be just the right temperature - "Softened but still cool".  An inexact temperature.

Following the recipe....

In my mixer, I beat the butter briefly then slowly added the sugar beating for 5 minutes, then added the salt.

Sunday Pound Cake - The Butter

Sunday Pound Cake - Adding the Sugar

I mixed the eggs, egg yolks, water, and Vanilla together in a measuring cup and added this to the butter/sugar mixture in a stream until combined.

Sunday Pound Cake - Eggs, Egg Yolks, Water, Vanilla.

Sunday Pound Cake - Adding the Egg Mixture in a Stream.

This is where I figured out the butter was not quite warm enough. The mixture was pretty lumpy with butter bits rather than smooth.

I sifted  1/3 of the cake flour onto parchment paper, and sprinkled the flour over the mixture and folded it in.

At this point I decided to take care of the butter lumps and worked them out. A mistake. The butter I figured  out afterwards that the butter limps should have been worked out before the first addition of the flour.

I sifted the next 1/3 of the flour and folded it in and continued with the last 1/3 if the flour in the same way.

Sunday Pound Cake - Sifting the Flour

Sunday Pound Cake - Folding the Flour In

Sunday Pound Cake - After the 3rd Addition.

I loaded up the loaf pan and put it in the oven.

Sunday Pound Cake - Ready for the Oven.

The recipe said to bake for 70 - 80 minutes. This took 85 minutes.

Once out of the oven the cake rested for 5 minutes before being turned out to cooled on a rack.

Sunday Pound Cake - Cooling

While the cake smelled and tasted very good it did turn out to be more pound than cake. The butter temperature was likely the problem.

For tea the cake was just sliced and served. For dessert I macerated some blackberries from the summer with a couple of teaspoons of sugar and whipped up some cream.  The evening dessert was better than tea time.

Sunday Pound Cake - From the Editors of Cook's Illustrated -The New Best Recipe - All New Edition - 2004