13 Ways to Ruin a Pound Cake
Avoid these mistakes to ensure a perfect pound cake every time!
1) Not Reading the Entire Recipe
Carefully read through the entire recipe, and prepare any special ingredients, such as chopped fruits or toasted nuts, before mixing the batter
2) Substituting Store Brands
Prepare the recipe as directed, and use name-brand ingredients. Store brands of sugar are often more finely ground than name brands, yielding more sugar per cup, which can cause the cake to fall. Store brands of butter may contain more liquid fat, and flours more hard wheat, making the cake heavy.
3) Not Measuring Accurately
Be sure to use dry measuring cups for flour and sugar. Spoon flour into the cups and lightly level with the straight edge of a small offset spatula or knife. Extra sugar or leavening causes cake to fall; extra flour makes it dry.
Related: 6 Perfect Pound Cake Recipes (From Lemon-Coconut to Amaretto-Almond!)
4) Using Ingredients Straight from the Refrigerator
For maximum volume, have ingredients at room temperature. We like to premeasure our ingredients and assemble them in the order listed. That way, if interrupted, you're less likely to make a mistake.
5) Beating Butter Too Fast
Beat softened butter (and cream cheese or vegetable shortening) at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. This can take from 1 to 7 minutes, depending on the power of your mixer. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until light and fluffy. These steps are important because they whip air into the cake batter so it will rise during baking.
6) Overbeating the Eggs
Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until the yolk disappears. Overbeating the eggs may cause the batter to overflow the sides of the pan during baking or create a fragile crust that crumbles and separates from the cake as it cools.
Related: 70 Best-Loved Cookies
7) Overmixing the Batter
Always add the dry ingredients alternately with the liquid, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. This will help ensure that the dry and wet ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Mix just until blended after each addition. Overmixing the batter creates a tough, rubbery cake.
8) Using the Wrong Type of Pan
Pound cake recipes calling for a tube pan won't always fit in a Bundt pan. (Tube pans have straight, high sides, while Bundt pans are more shallow and fluted.) Although both may measure 10 inches in diameter, each holds a different amount of batter. We also found that some 10-inch tube pans hold 12 cups of batter while others hold 14 or 16 cups. The same pound cake recipe rises and bakes differently in each pan. When unsure of the size, use a cup measure to fill the cake pan with water to determine the pan's capacity.
Related: Luscious Five-Star Layer Cakes
9) Greasing Your Pan with Cooking Spray
Grease cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, such as Crisco, and always dust with flour-a slippery surface keeps the batter from rising to its full volume.
10) Trusting Your Oven's Temperature Setting
Use an oven thermometer to check your oven's temperature for accuracy. Many home ovens bake hotter or cooler than the temperature to which they're set.
11) Opening the Oven Door Before It's Done
Place the cake pan in the center of the oven, and keep the door close until the minimum baking time has elapsed. If the cake requires more baking, gently close the oven door as soon as possible after testing to prevent jarring and loss of heat-both can cause a cake to fall if it's not done.
Related: 10 Tempting Apple Desserts
12) Take the Cake Out of the Oven Too Early or Too Late
Test for doneness by inserting a long wooden pick into the center of the cake. It should come out clean, with no batter or wet crumbs clinging to it. (Some cakes will have a crack in the center that appears wet even when fully cooked so avoid this area when testing.)
13) Removing the Cake from the Pan Too Early or Too Late
After removing from the oven, place the pound cake, right side up, in the pan on a wire rack, and let cool 10 minutes away from drafts. This allows the cake to become firm enough to remove from the pan without breaking apart. Cooling too long in the pan will cause the cake to be damp and stick to the pan. Remove pound cake from pan to wire rack, and let cool completely.
Now that you're a pound-cake pro, try making our delicious Million Dollar Pound Cake!
Million Dollar Pound Cake
Ingredients
1 lb. butter
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preparation
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. (The butter will become a lighter yellow color; this is an important step, as the job of the mixer is to incorporate air into the butter so the cake will rise. It will take 1 to 7 minutes, depending on the power of the mixer.) Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. (Again, the times will vary, and butter will turn to a fluffy white.) Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.
Add flour to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. (The batter should be smooth and bits of flour should be well incorporated; to rid batter of lumps, stir gently with a rubber spatula.) Stir in extracts.
Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. (Use vegetable shortening or butter to grease the pan, getting every nook and cranny. Sprinkle a light coating of flour over the greased surface.)
Bake at 300° for 1 hour and 40 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.
More from Southern Living
10 Delicious Meals Under $3!
Guilt-Free Desserts
6 Decadent Red Velvet Desserts
"Like" Us on Facebook
