The Perfect Pound Cake (2024)

A perfect pound cake is a thing of beauty. Finely textured, tight crumb, light, moist. When a pound cake is good, it’s great. And, that’s the best part, it doesn’t need anything else to stand on its own. But more often than not, what you get is a dense, dry, flavorless slab that even ice cream can’t save.

The pound cake is a humble cake when even more humble origins. Traditionally it is prepared by mixing together a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of eggs, and a pound of flour, hence the name. While that doesn’t sound remarkable, what you get is a cake that truly highlights the flavor of the eggs and all that butter.

After testing a lot of cake, I strayed from the classic 1:1:1:1 ratio by adding milk for extra moistness and tenderness. I know, I know it’s not traditional, but the dairy so improves the texture that it wins hands down when tasted side-by-side to a more traditional preparation. The flavor is slightly less buttery but noticeably moister and lighter. Once doused in glaze, it’s the perfect specimen of a pound cake.

[A huge shout out to my friends who I forced to eat all my kitchen failures. Sorry, not sorry.]

Regardless if you prefer a lighter, moister cake or a denser, buttery cake, the technique is just as critical. Pound cake has such few ingredients, so treat them with care. That means cream your butter right and emulsify your fats well.

So, why does this matter?

Remember all those seemingly unnecessary steps that say to use room temperature butter and to cream your butter until light and fluffy? I’m sure your internal baking monologue is saying “Ugh, all of this is getting in between me and cake.” Well, those are essential. If there was a stronger word for it I’d used it. If you don’t believe me, check out some of these sites, which show you what happens when you skip over these steps.

Not pretty.

The reason all of this is so important is because the beaten sugar cuts pockets of air in the butter and that helps the cake rise and form its crumb. Properly creamed butter should be noticeably lighter in color and less gritty. Brave Tart has an excellent post about the ins and outs and what that should look like (take a look!). On a standard Kitchen Aid stand mixer, this will take about 3 to 4 minutes at medium speed (a 4 on a KitchenAid stand mixer) to cream the butter and sugar.

But, whip too long and things start to heat up. Once butter rises past 68°F, it begins to melt and can’t easily form an emulsion with the eggs. All you need to know is that means goodbye to that even crumb we’re after. To ensure your butter doesn’t go beyond 68°F, start with butter that is at least 60°F and no more than 65°F. I go so far to use an instant-read thermometer to be sure. It’s that important.

Once your butter is perfection you need to emulsify the eggs into the fat. Serious Eats does another great job explaining but essentially a stable emulsion of fat and liquid ensures a springy cake and even crumb. Done wrong and the batter will break and look curdled. If you have ever made a vinaigrette, you know what I mean.

You need to incrementally incorporate the eggs into the fat one at a time mixing well in between. This gradual addition makes it easier to disperse the eggs throughout the fat evenly. The egg yolks promote emulsification while the egg whites provide structure and aeration as they whip. Plan on beating the eggs for a full minute between additions at medium speed.

This is about getting lightness and even crumbs people!

If you follow these steps, you’ll be rewarded with a straight up addictive pound cake. I like to serve this on is own or with whipped cream. It’s so good that even if it goes stale just toast it up with some butter in a pan and serve with macerated berries.