When pound cake is good nothing else compares. But when it’s bad it’s extra sad. (I still have vivid memories of a former roommate’s family recipe that was closer to cardboard than cake.) To me the perfect pound cake is moist and flavorful with a crisp golden brown crust. It should have a light tender crumb but still be sturdy enough to slice cleanly into thick pieces. It should be delicious on its own and also be a tasty partner for toppings like whipped cream and berries.
Pound cake is believed to have originated in Europe in the 1700s and introduced to America by Amelia Simmons in her 1796 cookbook American Cookery which was the first cookbook authored by an American and published in the United States. Abby Fisher who was enslaved in South Carolina before making her way to San Francisco after the Civil War helped popularize pound cake in the South when she included not one but two pound cake recipes in her 1881 cookbook What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. Fisher’s book was the first known cookbook written by an African American.
Pound cake got its name from the fact that the original recipe used one pound each of sugar eggs flour and butter. These proportions made it easy for anyone to whip up a cake regardless of whether they could read or write. But using a pound of each ingredient would have created a mammoth cake — big enough to serve multiple families. Over time pound cake recipes were adjusted to include artificial leaveners like baking powder and soda new ingredients and techniques were introduced and the whopping amount of ingredients was scaled back to make it more appropriate for home bakers.
Ingredients
1 box Duncan Hines butter recipe cake mix
1 cupcake flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream room temperature
1 stick butter room temperature
5 Eggs room temperature
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter flavouring
1 teaspoon almond extract
How To Make FAMOUS POUND CAKE
Step 1: Prepare the oven. Preheat it to 350 degrees.
Step 2: With Baker’s Joy generously grease a tube bundt pan.
Step 3: Combine the cake ingredients (cake mix cake flour sugar sour cream butter eggs oil water vanilla extract butter flavouring and almond extract) until smooth making sure not to overmix.
Step 4: Into the prepared pan pour the batter and place in the preheated oven. Bake for about 55 to 65 minutes until a fork or toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool for at least 10 to 15 minutes before inverting to a serving dish.
Step 5: In the meantime whisk the powdered sugar and lemon juice to your desired texture. Since it is only a glaze the consistency should be like thick nectar.
Step 6: A little at a time pour the glaze over the cake and spread using the back of a spoon. This way the glaze will soak into the still-warm cake.
Step 7: Slice and serve warm or room temperature. Enjoy!