Classic Pound Cake
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Martha Stewart Living, July 2009
- Yield Makes 2 cakes
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Ingredients
- 1 pound (3 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon coarse salt
- 4 sticks softened unsalted butter, plus more for pans
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 9 large, room-temperature eggs
Directions
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter two 5-by-9-inch loaf pans. Combine all-purpose flour and salt in a bowl.
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Cream butter and sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, for 8 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to medium, and add vanilla extract.
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Lightly beat eggs, and add to mixer bowl in 4 additions, mixing thoroughly after each and scraping down sides. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 4 additions, mixing until just incorporated. Divide batter between pans. Tap on counter to distribute; smooth tops.
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Bake until a tester inserted into center of each cake comes out clean, about 65 minutes. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire rack.
UGH! Too salty and mine didn't rise nearly enough. I wanted to compare it to my mother's recipe and it doesn't even come close...too much butter and almost twice as many eggs. I do halve the batter and make one regular cake and the other I add about 1/2 tsp of almond extract and about 1 Tbsp. of poppy seeds. I prefer almond pound cake rather than lemon like most people make. The almond one always disappears first!
I agree the cake turned out beautiful, but the taste was ruined by the amount of salt! I would use maybe a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of vanilla instead... Yuck!
Please correct this recipe! The salt ruined a perfectly wonderful cake. Great texture, great crumb but there is no way you should use a tablespoon of salt. And yes, I used coarse salt as the recipe called for....
There is a difference between coarse salt and table salt. The conversion is NOT one to one.
Why is there no baking powder, or baking soda?
Do the eggs really enable the cake to rise completely?
I tried the recipe with a teaspoon of salt... it was perfect... I like it
This recipe is wrong it should only have a teaspoon of salt not a tablespoon, be warned mine went in the bin!!!
I am guessing based on the other reviews that mine only came out wrong because of me- Mine was seeping with butter and did not rise - Did I just not beat the butter and sugar long enough?
Thanks!
Made this cake last night. However, I did tweak a couple of things: Subbed pinch of table salt for the coarse. Added rind of one lemon and juice of one lemon. Added more vanilla than called for. Did cream the butter/sugar for 8 minutes. Very important step. Will absolutely make this again, but will need to add some sort of liquid b/c cake was just a small tad on the dry side--just a tad. If this cake were just a bit more moist it would have reached perfection status.
This is a great pound cake, but yes it is a bit on the salty side. I would decrease salt to 1-1 1/2 tsp. of salt.
4 sticks butter=1 lb= 454grams
4 sticks of butter equals one pound in US measurements. I don't know what it is in kilograms...
I'm always a fan of Martha's cake recipes but sometimes I have difficulty in the measurement, in this case, the use of 4 sticks of butters. Can anyone tell me how much is 4 sticks of butter in kg or gram? I appreciate any feedback. Thanks
Best cake I've ever made! Definitely follow directions carefully-DO cream butter and sugar the full amount of time! Absolutely worth it! Halved the recipe btw, and used four eggs plus couple of teaspoons of the fifth.
I made this cake for my grandmother...it was excellent. I chose to make it with only 1/2 tablespoon coarse salt and it came out perfectly moist and rich. This recipe is a keeper!
I made this cake without alterations for my mother-in-law's birthday and it turned out fabulous. I weighed the flour and sugar instead of measuring it, and used coarse Kosher salt and a good quality bourbon vanilla and everyone loved it. Not too sweet, but ever so rich and flavorful.
So I have made this and I am making it again now (fingers crossed, no jinx, no jinx) and I have found that if you use cake flour, and really really cream the hell out of the butter and sugar you get a really nice product. I also just the salt down to 1 tsp per lb of flour, I am using bulk bin sea salt.
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I was about to make this recipe but worried since the comments are negative. Any one out there with suggestions?
Cookie
I made this last night and had to throw it out - WAY TOO SALTY!
I made 3 varieties. I wasn't thrilled with any. I didn't have a salt problem, but I used salted butter and added just a pinch. I don't understand Martha's obsession with coarse salt in baking. You can see my results here: http://marthaandme.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/pound-cake-party/
I baked this cake following recipe but had to throw them out. TOO SALTY. Really 1 tablespoon of coarse salt? I think maybe it should've been 1 tsp of coarse salt. Has anyone else had the same results?
I bake all the time and followed this recipe exactly. My cakes came out looking and smelling great but they are really dry. Any ideas of what to do now?