Buttermilk Pound Cake
A proper pound cake should have weight to it, anchored by a deep butter flavor. The buttermilk keeps the texture dense but velvet-soft, avoiding the dryness that often plagues simpler oil-based cakes.
Room temperature is not a suggestion
If your butter and eggs are cold, the emulsion will break, resulting in a greasy, uneven cake. Set them out an hour before you plan to bake.
- 10-inch tube pan or Bundt pan
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Rubber spatula
- Fine mesh sieve
What goes in.
- 1 lbunsalted butter, softened
- 2 1/2 cupsgranulated sugar
- 5large eggs, room temperature
- 3 cupsall-purpose flour
- 1/2 tspbaking soda
- 1/2 tspfine sea salt
- 1 cupfull-fat buttermilk
- 1 tbspvanilla extract
Creaming to a pale ivory
Beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for a full five minutes. You are not just mixing; you are forcing air into the fat, which provides the only lift this dense cake receives.
The method.
Prep the oven and pan
Heat your oven to 325°F. Grease your pan thoroughly with butter and dust with flour, tapping out all excess.
Cream the base
Beat butter and sugar until the mixture is pale, airy, and doubled in volume. Add eggs one at a time, letting each fully disappear into the batter before the next.
Combine dry
Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Sift this mix to ensure no clumps remain.
Alternate additions
Add one-third of the flour, then half the buttermilk. Repeat, ending with the final flour portion. Mix only until the white streaks vanish; overworking at this stage makes the cake tough.
Bake
Pour into the pan and smooth the top. Bake for 65–75 minutes. The cake is done when a wooden skewer comes out clean and the top is a deep, burnished gold.
Cool
Let the cake rest in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
Other turns to take.
Lemon Zest
Rub the zest of two lemons into the sugar before creaming to release the oils.
Almond Glaze
Mix powdered sugar with a splash of milk and almond extract to drizzle over the cooled cake.
When it doesn't go to plan.
Measure flour by spooning it into the measuring cup rather than scooping directly from the bag to avoid packing it down.
Do not skip the baking soda; it reacts with the buttermilk to provide the necessary rise.
If the top browns too quickly, tent it loosely with aluminum foil for the final 20 minutes.
The ones that keep coming up.
Why did my cake sink in the middle?
Usually, this means the oven was opened too early, the oven temperature was too low, or the butter and sugar were not creamed long enough to create a strong structure.
Can I use low-fat buttermilk?
Stick to full-fat. The extra solids in full-fat buttermilk contribute to the final crumb structure.