Do you feel like baking something this afternoon? Why not surprise your family, and try out a pound cake recipe? Pound cakes are a baked American classic, and they offer tremendous versatility in ingredients for the recipe. Whether you prefer a chocolate swirl dough, devil’s food cake mix, or a citrus taste, you can achieve your dreamy desire with a pound cake.
The versatility of flavors and recipes for this cake, as well as its moniker, come from its standardized ingredients. All it takes to make the perfect pound cake, is a pound of eggs, a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, and a pound of butter. Of course, you don’t have to bake it all in one go. You can freeze the dough for use at a later stage or half the ingredients, as long as the ratios stay the same.
Here are 10 easy steps for baking the best pound cake you and your family will ever eat. Don’t be surprised if they all hound you to whip up more!
1. Use High-Quality Ingredients
When shopping for your ingredients, try to use high-quality products. Select a specialized cake flour from a premium brand, and look for sugar that comes in large granule format. Most brands of sugar produce a finely crushed product, and that adds more sugar weight to each cup you use in your recipe. Granulated sugar uses less sugar, making it less likely that your cake will fall.
For the eggs, we recommend you visit a farm stall or organic market. Store-bought eggs can’t compete with the texture, flavor, and nutritional value of free-range eggs, look at the color of the yolk after you crack it open and you’ll see the difference for yourself.
We also highly recommend the use of unsalted grass-fed butter in your recipe, it contains healthier fats, including a serving of beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids. Store-bought flour brands often include hard wheat, and butter more liquid fats, producing a dense and heavy cake.