Vanilla Pound Cake has the perfect texture of an old fashioned pound cake with just the right amount of vanilla flavoring. A traditional pound cake is heavy with a nice outer crust and a moist center. This recipe ticks all the boxes.
Most pound cakes call for all purpose flour, but this one is just perfect with cake flour. I mean its the kind of cake you say, I’ll just have one slice. Then, you find yourself standing over the kitchen counter with a fork snacking until someone catches you. Yep, you may think it won’t happen to you, but wait and see. A good cake is hard to turn down. 🙂
Now that summer is coming to an end and fall is right around the corner. I decided to decorate with blueberries and a lovely vanilla frosting. Soon, I will be baking with pumpkin and cinnamon in a house decorated with pinecones and fall scented candles. But, today I’m enjoying freshly picked hydrangeas with peach tea. Oh yes, and a couple slices of vanilla pound cake.
Tips for Vanilla Pound Cake
- Measure your ingredients with a scale for the correct amount.
- Sift your flour.
- Use room temperature unsalted butter, NOT melted.
- I baked this cake in a 10×4 inch, 16 Cup Angel Food Cake tube pan, you can use a bundt cake pan, just make sure it is a tube pan.
- Shortening can be replaced with coconut oil.
- Spoon batter into the cake pan, then bang pan on counter a couple times to level the batter.
- Once cake is baked, let it cool on a rack for ten minutes. Then using oven mitts invert the cake pan onto cooling rack and allow it to drop.
- If you let the cake cool too long in the pan before inverting, it may get moist and the outer crust will stick to the pan.
- Let the cake cool completely before decorating with frosting and berries.
- Store cake in an air tight container at room temperature. You can also slice the un-frosted cake, wrap each slice individually with plastic wrap and freeze for later.
- If you’re a chocolate lover try this Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe.
Vanilla Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Cups (375 g) Cake Flour
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ⅛ tsp Kosher Salt
- 16 Tbsp (226 grams) Unsalted Butter softened
- 3 Cups (600 grams) Granulated Sugar
- ½ Cup (113 grams) Shortening
- 5 Large Eggs
- 1 Cup (250 ml) Whole Milk
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 325 F (162 C), then grease and flour a tube pan. ( 10×4 inch, 16 Cup Angel Food Cake Tube Pan)
- Using a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment on medium speed cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. (2-3 minutes.)
- Add in shortening, mix until smooth. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
- Next, add one egg at a time, mixing until incorporated.
- Then, pour in milk alternating with spooning in flour mixture until a cake batter is formed. (alternating prevents curdling)
- Mix in vanilla.
- Spoon cake batter into prepared cake pan. Give the pan a slight bang on the counter to level batter.
- Bake on middle lowest rack for 1 hr and 15 minutes. Edges of cake will be golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake will come out with only moist crumbs not a wet batter.
- Once cake is baked, let it cool on a rack for ten minutes. Then using oven mitts invert the cake pan onto cooling rack and allow it to drop.
- Let the cake cool completely before decorating with frosting and berries.