“Step by Step Guide to Baking a Pound Cake Using The Secrets of The Restaurants” by Samantha Jennings
Have you ever wanted to make a Pound cake just like your favorite restaurant does? This Step-By-Step guide will instruct you on how to create a perfect Pound Cake Every time. This traditional recipe has been passed down the generations, and has been refined by modern methods.
What Exactly is Pound Cake?
Pound cake refers to a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. The traditional recipe makes a cake much larger than most families can consume, and so the quantity is often changed to suit the size of the cake that is desired. As long as the ratio is preserved, the resulting cake will be identical to that using the traditional recipe. Hence, any cake made with a 1:1:1:1 ratio of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar is also called a pound cake or lbs cake, even if the quantity used is smaller or larger than an actual pound. Once made, this light, dense cake isn’t like a regular cupcake, it comes in large portions, but that won’t matter, you’ll love it anyway. The recipe below is not only quick & easy, but quite possibly the best pound cake recipe (traditional pound cake) out there.
Basics:
Prep time: ~50 minutes
Serves: ~ 12 people
Step-by-step Instructions and the Pound cake recipe:
What you’ll need:
1 cup of softened butter, which has been left out of the fridge to melt at room temperature
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1)Equipment you will need:
Large mixing bowl – Medium-sized mixing bowl – Flour sifter – Cooling rack – Rubber spatula – Bundt pan (The round pan with the hole in the middle. If yours is new and nonstick, you can get away without greasing it. If not, spray the inside of the pan with some nonstick cooking spray such as Pam.) – Electric mixer of some kind – Toothpicks – Oven, preheated to 350 degrees F. First, using the flour sifter and the smaller mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. You can put the first cup of flour in the sifter, then put the salt and baking powder on top, then the rest of the flour as you sift it into the bowl.
2)Once you’re done, you’ll be left with a bowl of sifted powder. Put this bowl aside for now, we’ll come back to it later.
3)Next, put the shortening and the softened butter into the large mixing bowl.
4)Using the electric mixer, beat the this greasy concoction until smooth. This will become a common theme during this recipe – at each step, take the time to ensure that the batter is mixed SMOOTHLY together. Lumps and inconsistencies will cause this cake to come out plain wrong. Use the spatula from time to time to scrape the sides of the mixing bowl back down into the bowl if needed.
5)Next, slowly add the sugar to the butter while mixing. Resist the urge to just dump the whole bowl in at once, do this slowly. Mix it until it’s as smooth as possible. When you’re done, you’ll be left with a sugary buttery mixture.
6)Now add the eggs – but slowly. One at a time, add an egg to the batter, then mix well.
7)After adding each egg, you need to mix the batter, making sure things stay nice and smooth. When you’re done with all 5 eggs, you’ll have an eggy, sugary, buttery mixture.
8)Now go find the bowl of flour mix that you stashed away earlier, and grab the cup of milk. What we’re going to do is add a bit of flour and a bit of milk, then mix well.
9)Add a bit of each at a time, and mix it well in between. From time to time, use the spatula to scrape the sides back down so everything gets mixed well. When you’ve run out of flour and milk, and the batter is nice and smooth.
10)Finally, add the nutmeg and vanilla extract.
11)And then beat it until it’s smooth and creamy.
12)Carefully fill your bundt pan with the batter. Use the spatula to scoop every bit out of the bowl.
13)Smooth out the top with the spatula.
14)Put your batter into the oven at 350 degrees F, and bake for 45 minutes.
15)After waiting 45 minutes, start poking the cake with a toothpick. If you’ve never used this method before, it’s simple. Take a clean toothpick, and poke the cake midway between the center and edge of the bunt pant. Put the toothpick into the cake quite deep. Now pull it out. Is the toothpick dry and clean? If it is, the cake is ready. If there’s batter on the toothpick, or the toothpick is wet, we need more time. You almost certainly need longer than 45 minutes, but 45 minutes is a good time to start watching your cake more closely.
16)At 5-7 minute intervals, check on the cake again. Poke it with a new toothpick. If it’s clean, check several spots on the cake. Once the toothpick comes out clean everywhere, it’s time to take the pound cake out of the oven. Total cooking time was just under 1 hour. Your cooking time may vary, depending on your oven, pan, and other variations. Now wait for 15 minutes to let the pound cake cool down in situ
17)Come back 15 minutes later to find the pound cake has fallen back a bit. That’s normal.
18)Quickly but carefully flip the bundt pan over onto the cooling rack. You need to do it quickly or the pound cake might fall out and break.
19)Now we just remove the bundt pan slowly, and enjoy your fresh, cake!
Baking the Pound Cake this way ensures that it turns out light (not rock hard) but dense (not a fluffy texture like a sponge cake) and very tasty.
remember, if you’re into healthy eating, check out our article on “How to lose weight whilst eating your favorite cake”, as it outlines what you can substitute for these regular ingredients, to make your pound cake super healthy
About the Author
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