When it comes to pound cake recipes, nothing beats Paula Deen’s, the queen of Southern cuisine. If you want to ensure pound cake success, this is the recipe for you. It takes a bit of work, but don’t be afraid to take whisks! Let’s get started.
Paula Deen Pound Cake
Paula Deen’s pound cake has a wonderful texture – dense and crumbly, but not too heavy, and so moist it melts in your mouth. As for the flavor, it definitely delivers. It’s outrageously rich and buttery! It’s so good you don’t even need to glaze or frost it. It’s a terrific teatime treat as it is.
What is the Best Flour to Use for Pound Cake?
Paula’s pound cake recipe calls for all-purpose flour, but we’re tweaking that a little because I find cake flour to yield a much better result. Pound cakes are traditionally heavy, but with this little switcheroo, yours will be lighter. If all you have is all-purpose flour, that’s fine, you can work with that. Place 3 cups of all-purpose flour in a bowl. Take out 6 tablespoons, and replace it with cornstarch. Sift the mixture twice, and congratulations, you’ve just made your very own cake flour.
Tips for the Best Cake
Measure the ingredients accurately. Use a spoon to place the flour in the measuring cup, and level it flat with an offset spatula or the back of the knife. Scooping the flour with the measuring cup will yield more than needed.Use room temperature dairy. Cold eggs and butter won’t blend well with the rest of the ingredients.Beat the butter and shortening well, until it’s light and fluffy. This should take somewhere around 4 to 8 minutes, depending on the power of your beater. This process, which is called “creaming,” incorporates air into the batter, which in turn helps it rise as it bakes. While beating, scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are blended well.Don’t add all the eggs at once. Add them one at a time, beating in between until you no longer see the yolk. Add the dry and wet ingredients into the butter-egg mixture alternately, ending with the dry. This technique will prevent your batter from curdling. Do not over-mix the batter, otherwise, your cake will be tough and rubbery. Beat just until the ingredients are well-combined.For flavor variety, add a splash of almond extract, lemon juice, or rum. Add shredded coconut, dried fruit, nuts, or poppy seeds for textural variety.Grease the pan well. Butter or vegetable shortening both works. Dust it with flour because a slippery surface will prevent the batter from rising to its full potential.Instead of a tube pan, you can also use loaf pans and muffin tins.Don’t open the oven door until the minimum baking time has elapsed.Don’t let the cake cool in the pan for too long. Keep it in the pan for just 10 minutes, that way, it’ll have set enough that it won’t fall apart when you flip it over. If you go over 10 minutes, the cake will become damp and difficult to remove.Serve the cake as-is or drizzle it with vanilla glaze. Simply whisk together 1 cup of powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla, and 2-3 tablespoons of milk.Wrap leftover pound cake in plastic wrap or parchment paper and store at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Let it come to room temperature or warm it in the microwave before serving.To freeze, double wrap the whole cake or individual slices in plastic wrap and foil. Freeze for up to 3 months.
How Do You Make Pound Cake Moist?
While Paula’s recipe doesn’t call for it, I really do recommend adding sour cream or buttermilk instead of milk. It makes the pound cake so moist, it almost melts in your mouth. If you can’t get buttermilk where you’re from, you can make it yourself. Just add a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a 1-cup measuring cup, and fill the rest with milk. Stir it with a spoon and leave it for 10 minutes. You’ll know it’s working when you see the mixture curdling. Another key factor is bake time. Don’t over-bake your pound cake, or it’ll turn out dry. You’ll notice the bake time on this recipe card has a wide gap (1 hour to 1 1/2 hours). That’s because not all ovens are created equally. Some have higher temperatures than others, which means they bake goods much faster. To prevent your cake from over-baking, start checking for doneness on the 1-hour mark. Insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out dry, take it out. If it comes out with wet batter sticking to it, it needs a few more minutes. Put it back in the oven and bake for another 5 minutes and test again. Repeat until it passes the toothpick test.
What is the Difference Between Pound Cake and a Regular Cake?
For one, there’s the flavor. Pound cakes are very buttery, while regular cakes such as sponge and chiffons cakes tend to have a milder taste slightly flavored with vanilla. Next is the texture. Regular cakes are lighter and airier, while pound cakes are very dense. Apart from taste and texture, there’s also a big difference in the ingredients used, specifically, their quantity. The original pound cake recipe called for a pound of butter, eggs, flour, and sugar, plus some type of leavening. You can scale it down to fit smaller pans, but the ratio should be the same. Since it’s very flavorful on its own, pound cake is perfectly fine even without a glaze or a frosting. Served plain, it’s a great accompaniment to your morning coffee or afternoon tea. But since it has such a dense texture, it’s an excellent base for heavy frostings such as fondant, whereas regular cakes won’t stand a chance. That’s why you’ll often see this cake being served at weddings!
More Tasty Paula Deen Treats
Paula Deen Ooey-Gooey Butter CakePaula Deen Banana BreadPaula Deen Peach Cobbler 30 Click on a star to rate it!
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