Best Vanilla Pound Cake recipe, buttery, flavorful, moist cake. Simple & Easy recipe to give you a perfectly soft, rich, delicious traditional homemade vanilla pound loaf cake.
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.
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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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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! Even a Peach and Raspberry pound cake! So yummy!
We've also got a really easy Raspberry Pound Cake with a simple White Chocolate topping on our sister site, Newbie In The Kitchen. Tangy and sweet and so delicious!
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!
Frequently Asked Questions
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!
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 pound cake.
When you have baked the cake and taken it from the oven to cool, it will naturally sink once it comes into contact with the cooler air. Once the cake sinks, (and sometimes this can be a lot), the cake will become denser and heavier 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.
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!
Ingredients You'll Need
225 g or 1 ¾ cups Plain / All purpose flour (sieved)
2 Teaspoons baking powder
¼ Teaspoon salt
175 g or ¾ cup softened butter
150 g or ¾ cups regular sugar
⅔ Cup or 150 ml Milk
2 Large eggs (lightly beaten)
1 & ½ Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Instructions
1. Heat oven to 170c, 325F. 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.
Top tip
Use our Homemade Pan Release to grease your pan.
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.
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 1 hour to 1 hour 5 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.
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
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!
Recipe Card
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.
Ingredients
- 225 g or 1 ¾ cups Plain / All purpose flour (sieved)
- 2 Teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ Teaspoon salt
- 175 g or ¾ cup softened butter
- 150 g or ¾ cups regular sugar
- ⅔ Cup or 150 ml Milk
- 2 Large eggs (lightly beaten)
- 1 & ½ Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 170c, 325F. 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 1 hr to 1 hr and 5 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.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 311Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 295mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 1gSugar: 20gProtein: 5g
Loaf Cake Recipes
Here's a delicious selection of pound or loaf cake recipes for you to enjoy
Tiramisu Pound Cake, a soft and delicious pound cake with all the flavors of a Tiramisu! It's even got a mascarpone frosting. This will go fast so be sure to make two!
Easy Lemon and Poppyseed French Yogurt Cake. Lemon and poppyseed French yogurt loaf cake is soft and moist, an incredibly easy to make recipe, with poppyseeds throughout. A great tea time cake.
Strawberry and Lemon Loaf Cake.
A deliciously soft and fluffy strawberry loaf cake bursting with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Flavourful, with a tender, soft texture. An easy, popular cake recipe.
Peach Pound Cake with Raspberry Swirl. A delicious recipe bursting with sweet peaches and a tangy raspberry swirl running through. Soft, moist and perfect with a morning coffee or to take to friends! If you are a fan of pound cakes and peaches, then this one is for you.
A simple, easy chocolate loaf cake recipe is moist, rich and chocolatey. Perfect for new cooks and is a go to basic recipe
Caribbean Rum Cake, an easy delicious recipe! The cake is soft and moist, packed with rum infused raisins and makes for a great Christmas time cake.
Strawberry Pound Cake. A delicious recipe bursting with fresh strawberries. Soft, moist and perfect with a morning coffee or to take to friends!
Easy Lemon French Yogurt Cake. Delicious tangy lemon, soft and moist, incredibly easy made from scratch cake recipe, great as a tea time snack
Coffee Pecan Pound Cake is a lovely tasting, moist cake with a perfect combination of coffee flavor and texture from the pecans.
Easy Strawberry French Yogurt Cake.
Delicious juicy strawberries, soft and moist, incredibly easy made from scratch cake recipe, great as a tea time snack
Easy Blueberry and Lemon Crumble Cake.
Deliciously soft & moist cake packed with blueberries and a hint of lemon. Topped with a crumble topping. Easiest simple cake recipe ever!
Easy Raspberry Pound Cake. A delicious classic pound cake recipe bursting with fresh raspberries. Soft, moist and tangy sweet. Topped with a simple chocolate topping. Easy to follow instructions
Coconut and Lime Pound Cake, a deliciously soft coconut cake with a splash of tangy lime.
Moist Coconut PoundCake Recipe. Light, soft, and oh sooooo delicious!
Blueberry Coconut Pound Cake, a deliciously soft coconut cake with a sprinkling of juicy blueberries.
Moist Lemon or Orange Pound Loaf, a wonderful soft and delicious cake using freshly squeezed juice and zest. Bake in a loaf or bundt pan. You choose!
Easy Cranberry and White Chocolate Pound Cake. This is a delicious soft and moist pound cake with a wonderful white chocolate flavor and added lovely cranberries. Freezer friendly and easy to make. Perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas
Moist Pecan Almond Loaf Cake. The flavor combo is just divine!
Easy Cinnamon Swirl Loaf. A moist, soft, and delicious tasting loaf cake, perfect with a morning coffee! This is a wonderful no yeast, quick bread recipe, full of flavor, soft and fluffy, and really easy to make too.
Moist Caramel and Apple Loaf .... ABSOLUTELY Delicious!
Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake, a delicious soft and moist loaf bursting with juicy blueberries! Perfect with a cup of tea
Moist Coffee Loaf Cake! This is an absolutely delicious soft, moist cake, easy to make and goes perfect with a lovely cup of coffee too!
Banana and Walnut Loaf Cake. A delicious, very easy and moist cake, and smells so good when it's baking too!
Lemon and Poppy Seed Loaf.
This is truly a delightful cake. The flavors are gentle, the cake is soft and moist and of course, looks so pretty with the addition of poppy seeds sprinkled throughout the cake
Moist Chocolate Almond Pound Cake. Delicious, rich chocolate cake with added melted chocolate and ground almonds to take this cake to another level of deliciousness!
Spiced Pecan Carrot Cake! This has got to be the World's best carrot cake.
Fluffy, soft and bursting with the flavors of Fall! Perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas holidays!
Dolly's Chocolate Chip Cake. Very easy recipe and a family favorite. Makes two loaves so perfect for gifts or freezing too.
Nutella Banana Loaf. Delicious, soft pound cake with banana and Nutella chocolate. Easy recipe and very popular. Great tasting cake
Ritza
says:Hi! Made the cake today. The flavor is great and I followed the recipe to the T. My cake, however, turned out quite dense and not spongy at all. Any suggestions? The batter did look a bit curdled (may be that’s how its supposed to be and it’s just in my head).
Thanks
Shani L
says:Great recipe! I added 4 oz of cream cheese and this pound cake is deliciously buttery!
Megan Martin
says:Hi We are in Lockdown because of the corona virus. I don’t have any baking powder but have self raising flour will this be ok?
Many Thanks.
Megan Martin.
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Megan, yes of course, use SR flour, that won’t be a problem. Just make sure you sift the flour and fold it in so you get some air in the batter to help it rise (baking powder would normally help with that)
Stay safe and enjoy your cake!
Juliet
says: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
says: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
says:What type of milk are you using? Or does that matter… Thanks!
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Jen, any milk is fine. I use skimmed because that’s what I have for normal stuff in the house
Luna
says:Hi. Thank you for this recipe, I made this cake and my family totally loved it but the cake cracked at the top how do I avoid my cake from cracking.
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Luna, the crack is nothing to worry about, if you bakes it correctly it will crack along the top. That is characteristic of this type of cake so you did it right!
Stephie
says:Can you please tell me what what size of loaf pan is used?
Thanks
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Stephie, you can use a 9 or 10 inch loaf pan.
Happy baking!
Pree
says:Hi, is there a way I could use an egg substitute for this same recipe? I really want to try this but I don’t take eggs.
Thanks !
Meg
says:Followed recipe except did not sift as I couldn’t find my sifter from recently moving. I gently blended the baking powder and salt into the flour with a fork. It came out perfect and delicious! Really great texture. Someone mentioned they might add more sugar, but I might add a tad less next time. I like pound cake because I like buttery, less sweet desserts. Thumbs up!
SueS
says:I’m making this for the first time (I usually make blueberry pound cake and everyone loves it). I lowered the temp because my oven runs a little hot, but after 30 minutes I can smell it burning on the bottom. I followed the recipe exactly, so I’m not sure what’s going on. It doesn’t seem to be rising either. I checked on it only once and very quickly so I didn’t keep the oven door open long. I don’t think I’ll try this one again. BTW – I’m using a bundt pan.
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Sue, Thanks for writing in and I’m sorry the cake isn’t going to plan. I’m scratching my head trying to work out what could be the problem. It is unusual for a cake to start burning after only 30 minutes, moreso if you turned the temperature lower than stated. Even at the recipe temperature, that should not happen at all. I don’t think it is the bundt pan either, I’ve made this recipe using loaf and bundt pans and not experienced any problems.
The only things I can think of is the oven may need checking, perhaps the thermostat isn’t working correctly. If so, that will also possibly explain why the cake hasn’t risen. For the latter, the other reason as you will know is if you forgot the flour or rising agent (or opened the oven door in the first 20 – 30 minutes of baking),
so I’m sorry I haven’t got an answer for you, I can only suggest what the most common problems are with baking.
I do hope you will give this cake another go. it really is a lovely cake and it’s such a shame something went wrong!
Sues
says:I agree with the people who said it has more of a cornbread texture. However, I made it so we could eat it with some strawberries we have, so it should work with that.
Berg
says:Hello and thank you for the recipe. I made this today in a 2 pound loaf pan but had too much so I had to use 2 of them.
It’s my first time baking a cake from scratch so I had to google what you meant by “sieve” the flour and “creaming” the butter and sugar. Could you add a link or a description so noobs like me understand better please? Anyways after doing all my research on baking I change a few minor things in the ingredients
1: used cake flour instead of all purpose flour.
2: no salt since you already have it if your using salted butter.
3: don’t use an electric mixer when your “creaming” the sugar and butter. All it did was get stuck in the blades.. I used a wooden spoon my parents used to beat me with to mix the soft butter and sugar together.
I put 75% of the mix in 1 loaf plan and the rest in the other.
Smaller one took around 35 minutes and bigger one 47 minutes and here’s the result. I put them at 350 at the top rack of my oven.
Amazing!!!!!! Both cakes came out nice and soft and a little moist and a little crispy on the top.
Since no one is posting images for some reason I decided to show you the result.
https://imgur.com/a/RqiNo4t
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Phil, I’m so happy your cakes turned out well on your first time baking! Your photo look brilliant. I see a little mouse has eaten half of one already!
I have got a few guides on baking such as how to line a loaf pan and baking blind but I’ll take on board your suggestions and write a few more guides so beginners can understand some of the baking techniques.
Thanks very much for writhing in and carry on baking. I think you’ll become an expert in no time at all!
Berg
says:Thanks again for the recipe, will always use this one. Thanks also for replying and listening to my feedback, I will be looking forward to reading about your baking techniques :).
I had to taste test it since I saw a few comments about their cake having not come out well, the ingredients not mixing good or having a rubbery taste.
I made sure all my ingredients were room temperature before I even started(had to defend the cup full of milk from my cat). Made sure my electric mixer was on low the whole time while following the instructions and making sure everything was mixed throughly.
I wanted to make pound cake for me and my brother but because I recently moved and none of the grocery stores here can bake a good one at an affordable price. I sought out my own solution by looking at a bunch of websites on how to make a pound cakes. The first website I ran into told me to use 12 eggs for “ every pounds of ingredients”. Not sure if they wanted me to make a pound cake or a brick. For me this recipe made the most sense!
Anyways thanks for reading my long winded comment and have a great day.
Holly
says:My 2.5 year old son calls this cupcake bread! I would love to make this but I am dairy free. Do you think this could be made with country crock butter (tub) or their stick “plant butter” and almond milk?
I am concerned it won’t have the right consistency with the substitute butter.
Thanks for your help!
Holly
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Holly,
I’m afraid I haven’t made this recipe using any substitutes. The only thing I can say is if you’ve used those ingredients before in cakes it could work, but you’re right, it is likely not going to have the same texture or taste.
If you give it a go, please do come back and let us know how it went I case there are others who want to use alternative ingredients. It would be most helpful for them!
Sues
says:To Phil: You can use a pastry blender (a hand tool you can find anywhere) to mix the butter and sugar. I use it all the time. I think sieve means sifted (like using a flour sifter). I’ve read on line in lots of places that the flour you buy nowadays doesn’t really need to be sifted. Hope that helps.
Susan Brown
says:Ny search is over!! Love it.
My oven is not in Celsius so used 320 Fahrenheit for an hour 20 minutes. So yummy…its not going to last.
I saw a blueberry/lemon on which I’ll try next. Thanks!
Reem
says:Hi,
This is a perfect cake .. do you have a video of it?
Detrice Carter
says:In the moist pound cake the butter that I am using is unsalted butter or salted butter and could I use a pound cake pan I don’t have the loaf pan.Thanks!
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Detrice, if you use salted butter, leave out the salt from the list of ingredients.
If you use a round pan, that will also be fine!
Please enjoy and Merry Christmas to you!
Yuki
says:Hi, I would like to try this recipe. I was wondering if I could use buttermilk instead of milk?
Lovefoodies
says:Hi Yuki, yes you can!
Gayathri
says:Hi, I’ve been using this recipe whenever I want to bake a cake.. it works like magic when I follow your instructions… thank you <3
Could you please let me know if I can add unsweetened chocolate powder to this to make it like a chocolate one?
Lovefoodies
says:Hi there, so glad you enjoy the recipe!
You can certainly add chocolate. What I use is around 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder to the flour and remove 3 tablespoons of the regular flour from the recipe. I also sometimes add about 2 tablespoons of melted chocolate to the cake batter when I’m beating the butter and sugar together. It’s very delicious!
Gayathri Venkatesh
says:Thank you so much for this tip … I actually tried it and chocolate cake came out really well ..
Thanks again <3
Harsimran kaur
says:Hi
Can I double the recipe? My bundt pan is approximately 10 inches.
I have tried your lemon and orange pound cake and it’s a hit. After a long long time I have had cake which is so moist, soft and has a beautiful flavour. Thank you
Lovefoodies
says:Hi there, glad you like the cakes!
You can double the recipe but there will be a bit of batter left over if you’re using a 10 inch. You can always pop the extra batter in some cupcake/ muffin pans!
Priyanka
says:Hola foodies!
Thanks for this gorgeous cake. I made some minor adjustments in the measure as suggested by one of the users in the comments thread (cut down on the butter and the sugar). It took a bit more than an hour (20-25 mins up) for the cake to be done as desired but came out wonderful. Baked it for my mum and she loves it. Will try more of your recipes. <3