the traditional pound cake, which is baked in a cold oven.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 10 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 1 10-inch tube pan |
Ingredients
- 3 cups white sugar
- 1 cup margarine
- ½ cup shortening
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
Instructions
- Do not preheat the oven. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
- Cream together sugar, margarine, and shortening in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Add flour alternately with milk, beating briefly after each addition. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
- Place in the cold oven, then set the temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 410 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 56 g |
| Cholesterol | 36 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 151 mg |
| Sugars | 39 g |
| Fat | 19 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I have never made a cold oven cake. This cake turned out wonderful! Light, airy, and delicious! I did use buttermilk instead of plain milk. I will do the cold oven from now on!
Delicious cake, incredibly sweet……..ideal for those with a sweet tooth. Was thinking of substituting part of the sugar with honey
This was so easy and turned out perfectly. I even used my vintage 1950’s Bunt Pan from Northland Aluminum and it came out to perfection. Will definitely make again.
Great as Lemon cake. I refuse to use shortening so I creamed 2 sticks butter with sugar then added 1/4c oil which keeps cake moist. Zest of 1 lemon and juice of 1 lemon, which cuts the sweetness a lot. A few drops of lemon oil- really bumps up lemon flavor try if you have never used-and substituted sour cream for milk- a nice twang!
This came out really good… I added more vanilla than recommended (kinda free handed) but other than that I followed the recipe to the word… Im glad I didn’t take the word of everyone who made adjustments, because this cake was amazing just the way it is! (I would recommend making it at least 12-24 hours before serving, just to give it time to settle pound cake usually taste better as days go on)
Thank you for a great and relatively inexpensive recipe! I have made it three times for petit fours and just as a loaf cake. Everybody who has had it has loved it.
I use all butter in this and like to add a little mace. But this is hand down my mom and son’s favorite cake. If made in a tube pan, it makes a gorgeous crunchy crust. My mother got this recipe at work many years ago and made it all through my childhood. I have a picky little Papillion pup who isn’t a foodie at all, she doesn’t even like most dog treats. But when she smells this cake she always wants a bit of it. I do find that I need to bake it about 10 minutes longer than the time in this recipe.
Really great pound cake! I used 1 1/2 cups margarine, because I never have shortening on hand, don’t know how shortening would make this cake any better…it’s pretty perfect the way it was! It filled up my large bundt pan perfectly, and with about the last 2 or 3 cups of batter left, I added some cocoa powder(I didn’t measure), and swirled it into the batter in the bundt pan, for a marble effect. Took this pound cake over the top! I served it strawberry shortcake style for dessert, had it the next morning toasted with some homemade strawberry jam. After snacking on it all week long, it kept nice and moist for the 2 of us about a week in an airtight cake carrier. With the few slices left starting to dry out, I made pound cake french toast with homemade strawberry syrup(it’s strawberry season here! lol). Thank you Etta for my new go-to recipe for pound cake!
Superb, wonderful cake with a beautiful texture inside and out, just what I was looking for! I did make a few changes after reading other posts: butter for the margine, reduced the sugar to 2-1/2 c. using 2 c. white sugar and 1/2 c. brown sugar (I like brown sugar and may try it with all brown sugar next time just to see how it does), increased vanilla to 1 T., and added 1/2 t. salt. In my oven it baked for 1 hour 40 minutes. One commentor had rated it poorly as being “floury tasting.” I had baked the cake in the evening for use the next day and after it had cooled completely I had a sample slice and will admit I also thought it tasted floury. However, a sample of it the next morning was completely different, the flavor excellent, so am guessing it just needs to “cure” overnight or for 12 hours or so, and would recommend making it the day or night before it is to be served. This cake needs absolutely nothing else to complete it, just wonderful, and seems to improve with each passing day. We did have it the first day with fresh mixed berries and whipped cream, a la strawberry shortcake, super good. Otherwise it has been eaten slice by slice just as is with an involuntary “ummm” by all, and sure to be finished down to the last crumb, rare for our family of three. Highly recommend!
I tried this recipe for a function at my Church. It was s hit! Love the way the top cooks up with a little crunch to it. This time I put almond flavor mixed with vanilla. Awesome! It deserves more than 5 stars! Thanks
My mother is the QUEEN of this cake and now I have inherited it. Things she always tells me: Dont overbeat it, always alternate flour and milk without overbeating!
Very good, very dense pound cake–a good plain cake, excellent with coffee.
Too sweet never tasted anything like it doesn’t taste like a pound cake, not soft like a pound cake! Won’t be doing this again.
this is the best pound cake i have ever made. i have tried a lot of recipes over the years and this one, by far, is the best. it turns out perfectly; crunchy on top and super moist inside. it stays moist even after you cut it. i love it!
Very dense and rich.
I made this for a friend and her family, and one of her little girls asked me to make it again for her. I love the flavor of almond extract, so I used that instead of vanilla. I need to make it again and bring for work anniversary. It’s perfect!
Simply the best. No icing required. It is just as good the second day as the first.
4 stars as written, made it again,using 4 eggs, 1 tsp. salt and a tbs. of vanilla extract. We really liked it with the changes. Since then I have made this with coconut extract, lemon extract. The possibilities are endless.
This is a slimmed-down version of an old Southern pound cake I have been baking for decades. I got it back then from a retired-after-30-years HomeEc teacher, and passed it along to a 5-star New Orleans chef who serves it to this day. Her changes are: a whole cup of Crisco, 3 1/2 cups of cake flour, 5 eggs, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of baking powder, and a tsp each of vanilla, lemon and almond extracts. Be sure to mix and sift the dry ingredients togetner before measuring the flour. She called this a “tender” recipe, so DO NOT over-mix. The added shortning and eggs will eliminate the dry condition some reviewers note, and the medley of flavorings stand out without being muddy and really add to the taste; no ganache needed. I took this to a company pot-luck party once. It killed the snooty cafeteria manager to ask for the recipe, but ask he did!
I made this to design a friend’s birthday cake. I thought the batter tasted chalky while I was making it, but thought perhaps just me worrying about the cake. Nope – the cake tasted terrible to me. People at the birthday said the cake was good, but my husband confided to me that if I hadn’t slathered the cake in dark chocolate ganache, it was indeed dry and bland. Not sure how I could improve the recipe, but I am never making this again. Sorry.
Sooo sweet! The texture was nice and mois but the flavor was not what I’m used to in a pound cake. I will make it again with a few tweaks, less sugar and maybe lemon zest along with more vanilla.