Best Vanilla Pound Cake recipe, buttery, flavorful, moist cake. Simple & Easy recipe to give you a perfect soft, rich, delicious traditional vanilla pound loaf cake.

Name: Homemade Vanilla Pound, Loaf Cake, classic, made from scratch easy recipe.
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: 175 g or 3/4 cup softened butter; 175 ml or 3/4 cup milk; 200 g or 1 cups regular sugar; 3 eggs, lightly beaten; 1 Teaspoons & 1/2 Vanilla Extract; 225 g or 1 3/4 cups Plain / All purpose flour, sieved; 1 Teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 Teaspoon salt

Moist Vanilla Pound, Loaf Cake. Here’s one of my all-time favorite cake recipes. It’s simply delicious, full of vanilla flavor. The texture is not quite as dense as a regular pound cake, but a little fluffier, and it is lovely and moist with a delicious golden top.

For this recipe, I’ve adjusted the traditional ingredient ratios, so when you bake this cake, it will not be quite as dense, and in order for it to be moist, I’ve added milk. Some recipes use buttermilk or even cream cheese. In my opinion, there isn’t any need for that, milk will make your cake tender, moist and give you a nice fine crumb.

Why is it called pound cake?

The traditional classic pound cake recipe can be traced back as far as the 18th Century. It was called a pound cake because the 4 ingredients called for 1 pound in weight of each. That would be pretty easy to remember! Note, the pound cake is not the actual weight of the cake. that would be around 4 pounds in weight.

Because of the name, you will often see the baking pans called ‘1 lb loaf pans’, and this size will be a perfect fit for your pound cake.

What is pound cake made of?

So the 4 ingredients which traditionally make up a classic pound cake are flour, eggs, butter, and sugar, and the ratio is 1 pound of each.

What does pound cake taste like?

This moist tender, buttery pound cake is rich and dense. It’s decadent because of the amount of butter used, and that, combined with the sugar and vanilla will give you a taste similar to a simple yellow cake, but this is certainly more extravagant and rich!

It makes for a great breakfast, tea time or snack cake, perhaps serve for an afternoon tea party, add a slice to a lunch box, take to a party, or simply enjoy a slice or three with a lovely cup of tea or coffee.

This vanilla pound cake is freezer friendly too so if you wanted to eat half right away and freeze half, then it will be perfect!

We’ve got a huge variety of delicious different pound cake recipes so be sure to check them out.

There’s a flavor for everyone! Once you’ve tried this recipe, I am sure you will make it time and time again. So here’s the recipe, and enjoy our Moist Vanilla Pound, Loaf Cake!

This is definitely the best pound cake recipe! I’ve taken several years of tweaking and adjusting to get this cake to be the perfect pound cake!

If you enjoy homemade, flavorful cakes, then this cake is going to become a keeper for you. The ingredients are most likely available as part of your pantry staples so you will more than likely be able to make this cake without any planning, and of course, you can’t beat a good made from scratch cake!

I’ve kept this recipe very simple and easy. However, we often get questions from our readers so I thought I’d answer them here. I know some of you are beginners to baking, so hopefully, you’ll find these answers helpful!

Why does my pound cake crack on top?

This is normal! Pound cakes will almost always crack on the top. As you will see from the photos, there is always a distinct crack down the middle of the baked cake.

When the cake is in the oven, the outside of the cake cooks first, and this makes the batter rise up in the middle. It’s a characteristic of a good pound cake.

Some people don’t like seeing the crack, so if that’s you, feel free to cover the crack with a drizzle of frosting, or in you wanted to bake using a bundt pan instead of a loaf pan, when the cake is turned out, the cracks will be underneath the bundt cake.

How do you know when a pound cake is done?

In step 6. of the instructions, you need to use a skewer or metal cake tester. Insert the tester into the thickest part of the cake. I usually stick the tester in the very center , and push down about halfway, take the tester out and if it comes out clean, the cake is done.

If the tester comes out with wet batter stuck to it, then you know the middle of the cake isn’t cooked, so leave the cake for a bit longer, at 5-minute intervals until the cake tester comes out clean. Below is a photo of using a cake tester so you can see what it looks like.

Do you grease a pan for pound cake?

The simple answer is YES! Or, if you don’t want to grease the pan, you need to use a paper pound cake liner, which you can often buy in packs . I have a pack of these which I use for many of my pound cakes, especially when I am making them for freezing or to give for friends.

We’ve also got a great guide if you’d like to learn how to line a loaf pan using parchment paper.

If you don’t have any parchment or greaseproof paper, you can use our homemade magic pan release recipe. It’s really simple!

If you’re thinking of making our Vanilla Pound Cake to give to a friend, why not bake it in one of these disposable baking pans. They’re terrific and so pretty too! You can choose different colors and we think they would make your pound cake look lovely! Festive too!

Why is my pound cake heavy?

Pound cakes are traditionally heavy by nature due to the ratio of ingredients. After all, there’s a lot of butter in a poound cake.

When you have baked the cake and taken it from the oven to cool, it will naturally sink once it comes in to contact with the cooler air. Once the cake sinks, (and sometimes this can be a lot), the cake will become denser and heaver because some of the air is lost.

The best way to try and avoid this is during the creaming method, in step 3 of the instructions.

The creaming method is very important when making a pound cake.

It takes a little time, but you need to beat the butter and sugar for 5 – 7 minutes until you see the batter color turn a very pale yellow, almost white and fluffy in texture. I always make sure the butter is at room temperature before I start the recipe. If the butter is too cold, it is very hard to get a light and fluffy texture from creaming.

That means the sugar has dissolved and is fully incorporated with the butter.

Once that is done, you need to add the other ingredients gently and fold in the flour at the end to try and keep as much air as possible in the cake batter so at least when it goes in the oven, it is less likely to sink.

So let’s get straight to our recipe and see how to make a pound cake. Please enjoy!

Ingredients:

The Cake Batter:

3/4 cup or 175 g softened butter
3/4 cup or 175 ml milk
1 cup or 200 g regular sugar
3 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups or 225 g Plain / All purpose flour (sieved)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 180c, 350F. Grease and line your baking tin. See here for how to line.
** Please note, if using a Bundt tin, be sure to grease it very well as it can be hard to get the cake out of such a shaped tin.

2. Get all your ingredients ready, i.e sieve the flour and add the salt and baking powder to the flour etc.

3. Start with making the cake batter by creaming the butter and sugar until a pale light color.

Pound Cake Ingredients, creaming butter and sugar until pale and fluffy

See how light and fluffy the batter is becoming

4. Slowly add the beaten eggs to the mixer, on a low-speed setting, a bit at a time. If the mixture starts to curdle or split, add a spoonful of your sieved flour, keep on adding the eggs, and a bit of flour if necessary until all the eggs are added. Add the Vanilla Extract.

5. Add half the milk with half of the flour, keeping the mixer on a slow speed. Once combined, add the remaining milk and gently fold in the remaining flour until combined.

6. Transfer the cake mixture to the greased and lined loaf tin. Then place in the oven for 50 – 55 minutes, check after 50 minutes

.
*** Please do a test if the cake is done by using a skewer and poke it in the middle to see that it comes out clean. Every oven is different and cook times may vary a little.

Moist Vanilla Pound, Loaf Cake showing addition of raisins in batter before baking

The photo shows the vanilla pound cake with a handful of raisins thrown in. Absolutely delicious!

7. Have a cup of tea!

8. When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and leave in the cake tin until cool enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container, and there you have our Moist Vanilla Pound, Loaf Cake

Looking for a good quality, non stick Bundt Pan to make this delicious cake? The cook time will be about 10 minutes less than if you were to bake using a loaf pan. Here’s one we can recommend.

This Kitchenaid mixer is what I use for all my cakes and much more such as kneading dough for bread! If you haven’t got one, we can recommend this. I have a red one and a silver one!

We’d love to hear from you and what you thought of our post. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

If you make cakes as much as we do, it’s worth investing in one of these loaf cake savers. We have the red one! It stops the cake from drying out and looks good enough to go on your countertop too! I also use it when I transport my cakes to parties or when I visit friends. Keeps it in one piece!

Loaf Cake Recipes

Here's a delicious selection of pound or loaf cake recipes for you to enjoy

Homemade Vanilla Pound, Loaf Cake, classic, made from scratch easy recipe.

Best Pound Cake recipe, buttery, flavorful, moist cake|Simple & Easy recipe to give you a perfect soft, rich, delicious traditional vanilla pound cake.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

175 g or 3/4 cup softened butter
175 ml or 3/4 cup milk
200 g or 1 cups regular sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 Teaspoons & 1/2 Vanilla Extract
225 g or 1 3/4 cups Plain / All purpose flour, sieved
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt

Instructions

Heat oven to 180c, 350F. Grease and line your baking tin.
Get all your ingredients ready, i.e sieve the flour, and add the salt and baking powder to the flour etc.
Start with making the cake batter by creaming the butter and sugar until a pale light colour.
Slowly add the beaten eggs to the mixer, on a low speed setting, a bit at a time. If the mixture starts to curdle or split, add a spoonful of your sieved flour, keep on adding the eggs, and a bit of flour if necessary, until all the eggs are added. Add the Vanilla Extract.
Add half the milk with half of the flour, keeping the mixer on a slow speed. Once combined, add the remaining milk and gently fold in the remaining flour until combined.
Transfer the cake mixture to the greased and lined loaf tin. Then place in the oven for 50 - 55 minutes, check after 50 minutes.
*** Please do test if the cake is done by using a skewer and poke it in the middle to see that it comes out clean. Every oven is different and cook times may vary a little.
Have a cup of tea!
When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and leave in the cake tin until cool enough to transfer to a cooling rack.
Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Comments

Juliet

April 06, 2020 at 8:49 pm

Tried this recipe and it was so yum! Everyone at home loved it.
However, I noticed my cake was too oily can I reduce the butter quantity?

- Lovefoodies
  
  April 06, 2020 at 9:25 pm
  
  Hi Juliet, glad you enjoyed the cake. It might be the fat percentage in the butter you use is particularly high 9they all vary in brands), so yes, I would try to reduce it, try reducing to around 150g.
  The other reason could be that the butter has melted when you beat it with the sugar. It needs to be at room temperature and not melted / liquid, or, when you’re beating, the butter hasn’t been beaten for long enough with the sugar until it goes a pale color and a slightly fluffy texture. (That does change the structure of the butter and helps greatly with the texture of the cake.).
  I hope these suggestions help for next time!
  
Jen

April 05, 2020 at 8:32 pm

What type of milk are you using? Or does that matter… Thanks!

- Lovefoodies
  
  April 05, 2020 at 8:33 pm
  
  Hi Jen, any milk is fine. I use skimmed because that’s what I have for normal stuff in the house
  
Stephie

April 04, 2020 at 3:32 am

Can you please tell me what what size of loaf pan is used?
Thanks

- Lovefoodies
  
  April 04, 2020 at 7:35 am
  
  Hi Stephie, you can use a 9 or 10 inch loaf pan.
  Happy baking!

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