Vanilla Pound Cake: buttery, tender, sweet, insanely delicious pound cake! This pound cake is easy to make and only requires one bowl! It is perfect for breakfast, snacking or dessert!
Pound Cakes are my favorite cakes! There's just something about their simplicity that makes them shine. No frosting needed. No need to decorate the cake!
With pound cakes just bake them and they are ready to eat! If you want to take it further you could make a simple glaze and pour over them but I prefer my pound cakes without the glaze. They are so good on their own!
This Vanilla Pound Cake is irresistibly buttery and so moist! I love it with a steaming cup of tea. It just makes my day better!
I used my homemade vanilla extract in this recipe and the flavor is amazing! You could use any vanilla extract you have on hand or even vanilla essence would work as well.
Also, if you would like to try other flavors of pound cake check out my recommendations for different flavors below.
Ingredients For Vanilla Pound Cake
You need 8 simple ingredients for vanilla pound cake. (See full recipe below for the measurements.) The ingredients for pound cake are:
1. Butter
2. Sugar
3. Vanilla Extract
4. Milk
5. Eggs
6. Flour
7. Baking Powder
8. Salt
How Do You Make Pound Cake From Scratch?
Making pound cake from scratch is quite easy. Simply follow these steps:
1. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add milk, vanilla extract and beat to combine.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat to combine.
4. Add flour, baking powder, salt and beat to combine.
5. Pour into a greased and floured loaf pan.
6. Bake until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Why Is It Called Pound Cake?
It is called pound cake because traditionally pound cake is made with one pound of every ingredient. To make a traditional Pound Cake you need one pound of butter, one pound of sugar, one pound of eggs and one pound of flour.
For those who measure by grams one pound is equal to almost 500 grams.
How Many Eggs Is A Pound?
It takes about 8 eggs to make one pound.
An Updated Pound Cake Recipe
This vanilla pound cake recipe feeds off the traditional pound cake recipe as it calls for about half a pound of the main ingredients which are butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. However I added some other ingredients to make the cake even better.
The added ingredients are baking powder, salt, milk and vanilla extract.
What Does A Pound Cake Taste Like?
A pound cake is buttery, tender, moist, sweet and a little dense. It is sweet but not too sweet which makes it a great cake for breakfast.
Tips For Making Pound Cake
Here are tips for making the best vanilla pound cake:
1. Use room temperature ingredients. Make sure the eggs, milk and butter are all at room temperature. This will help them mix properly with the batter. Here are some tips on how to bring cake ingredients fast to room temperature:
- To bring cold butter quickly to room temperature, place 1 stick of butter in the microwave and heat it up for 10 seconds. You only need about 10 seconds for the butter to soften. If you overheat it, it starts to melt.
- To bring cold eggs to room temperature, place the eggs completely submerged in a bowl of lukewarm water.
- To bring cold milk to room temperature place one cup of milk in the microwave and heat it up for 10 seconds. Then stir the milk and use. Stirring the milk helps mix up the portions that are slightly warm with those that are cold.
2. Don't overmix the batter. As with any cake batter, do not overmix the batter for pound cake. Mix everything to be just combined then stop mixing once you stop seeing particles of flour. Overmixing cake batter will cause the gluten in the flour to toughen, leading to tough cake.
Other Flavors You Can Add To Pound Cake
Pound cake takes on other flavors quite well. Try to switch it up by adding the following:
- Add orange zest and juice for orange pound cake. (Reduce the milk by half to make room for the orange juice.)
- Add lime zest and juice for lime pound cake. (Reduce the milk by half to make room for the orange juice.)
- Add lemon zest and juice for lemon pound cake. (Reduce the milk by half to make room for the orange juice.)
- Fold in blueberries for blueberry pound cake.
- Replace part of the butter with cream cheese for cream cheese pound cake.
- Add chocolate chips for chocolate chip pound cake.
- Add dried fruits for fruit cake.
- Switch vanilla Extract for almond Extract.
Tools for Vanilla Pound Cake (affiliate)
Watch How To Make Vanilla Pound Cake
Watch me making Vanilla Pound Cake in the video below. Also, please SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube Channel so you do not miss any of my videos!
Also Check Out These Recipes:
- Yogurt Cake Recipe
- Plain Cake Recipe
- Homemade Vanilla Extract Recipe
- Lemon Pound Cake Recipe
- Banana Bread
Vanilla Pound Cake is buttery, moist, sweet but not too sweet and slightly dense. It is good with coffee or tea and can be served for breakfast or dessert. Top with whipped cream and fresh berries for a dessert that is sure to impress!
- 1 cup unsalted butter (250g) room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
- 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup whole milk (125 ml) room temperature
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (180g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Oil for greasing pan
- Flour for dusting pan
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Preheat oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
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Grease and flour baking pan. Pour half a tablespoon of oil into a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan. Brush the pan with the oil ensuring the oil completely coats the pan. Add a tablespoon of flour to the pan and tap the pan to ensure the flour completely coats the pan. Discard the excess flour.
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Beat butter and sugar. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat using an electric beater until light and fluffy (you could use a fork as well - it will require more time but totally doable.) It takes about 3 minutes for the butter and sugar to be light and fluffy while using an electric mixer.
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Add wet ingredients. Add the vanilla extract and milk to the butter and sugar mixture and beat to combine. Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, lightly beating after each egg is added.
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Add dry ingredients. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the egg mixture.
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Mix the batter. Beat everything until just combined. Do not overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Level the top using a spatula and gently tap the pan to ensure the batter is evenly distributed.
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Bake. Place the pan into the prepared oven and let it bake until golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Start checking around 40 minutes. If the cake is browning too quickly, loosely cover it with aluminum foil.
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Cool and serve. Place cake on wire rack to cool then remove the cake from the pan, slice and serve.
Tips for bringing cold ingredients fast to room temperature:
- To bring cold butter quickly to room temperature, place 1 stick of butter in the microwave and heat it up for 10 seconds. You only need about 10 seconds for the butter to soften. If you overheat it, it starts to melt.
- To bring cold eggs to room temperature, place the eggs completely submerged in a bowl of lukewarm water.
- To bring cold milk to room temperature place one cup of milk in the microwave and heat it up for 10 seconds. Then stir the milk and use. Stirring the milk helps mix up the portions that are slightly warm with those that are cold.
Aunty Pre thanks for your amazing recipes. Can butter be substituted with margarine?
Hi Bessem, yes it can.
Just discovered your blog through Pinterest. You are doing a marvelous job with this blog. You just got a new fan and follower. Kudos! You can also follow our blog at foodrecipeindustry.com
Thanks Solomon!
Great Blog!Great Job! Always salivate whenever i drop at your blog. Keep up the great work.
Thank you so much, Frankky!
Amazing recipe! Turned out so moist and soft. Thank you!
You are welcome, Albina! Thanks for the feedback!
My cake came out oily. I think the recipe should be 125g of butter not 250 tha is what 1/2 cup is equal to
Hi Rachel, not sure why it came out oily. This recipe calls for one cup of butter not half. The equivalent of 1 cup of butter is 250 grams or exactly 227 grams.
Thanks Precious. My kids loved it
So glad to hear that Masong!
I have been following you for years now,all your recipes are just amazing. Thanks sooo much for sharing them with us.
That's so sweet, Clarisse. Thank you for your kind words.
Hi. Am glad to be here.
Try try your receipt for pan cake, anyway it came out well. But was too oily
Hi Sandra, did you follow my exact measurements?
Hi Precious,
I sent you several emails for a while now. No response. Is there another way I can reach you?
My Best Regards.
Hi Bisong, so sorry I have been behind on my emails. I will check and get back to you.
I did one of the substitutes and put in orange juice and zest! The cake came out very tasty and beautiful... It tastes even better. Thank you for a simple, easy to follow recipe and alternatives that make it our own. 😊
You are so welcome, Michelle.
Thank you for the great review.