Basic Pound Cake Recipe

Pound cake is a heartier thicker based cake, which makes them very versatile when you’re baking and decorating. I’ve been on the lookout for a good pound cake recipe. In my search I found out “pound cake” got its name because early recipes called for bakers to add a pound of flour, a pound of butter, and a pound of sugar then bake. I don’t need that much pound cake!

I’ve been making some stand up cakes lately which require a sturdier cake than the basic vanilla, or box mix cake. Most of them call for pound cake so they’re strong enough to stand up on their own. I priced pound cake mixes in the store, and they were around $2.50 each! Since most of the cake molds I’ve been looking at take at least 5 cups of batter, I would need 2 mixes. That’s $5 in pound cake, yikes! I decided I could definitely find a pound cake recipe to use instead for way less money!

I hunted around and finally settled on this pound cake recipe, adapted from Mama’s Pound Cake by Paula Deen

Basic Pound Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• small pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and shortening in a large mixing bowl.

3. Combine the dry ingredients in a second mixing bowl.

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and mixing until well combined.

5. Pour the mixture into a tube pan, your favorite stand up cake mold, or 2 round 9″ pans depending on what you plan to use your pound cake for. I like to use no stick cooking spray with flour in it to keep the batter from sticking no matter what shape of pan I use.

6. bake for 40 minutes  to 1 1/2 hours, depending on the cake pan and amount of batter used, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

This is a great recipe to use when you need a sturdier cake, like a lamb cake I’m working on finishing up, or like this one:

• Bear cake

I’ll be back to share how my lamb cake turns out later this week! Hopefully!