How to Make Pound Cake

The pound cake is a rich and buttery dessert that is popular at many family picnics. It became known as a "pound" cake because most recipes contained one pound each of butter, flour and sugar, along with one dozen eggs. Learn how to make this classic recipe by following the steps below.

Things You'll Need

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups butter or margarine, softened
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup evaporated milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 10-inch loaf pan with with butter and dust with flour.

2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another large bowl, mix the sugar, butter, almond extract and eggs, blending with an electric mixer for 30 seconds at low speed. Then switch to high speed and continue blending, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl, for 5 minutes.

3. Fold in the dry ingredients and add the evaporated milk to the combined wet ingredients. Mix at low speed for another 5 minutes.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Tap the pan lightly on a counter to eliminate air bubbles. Place the loaf pan into the oven and bake for one hour and 20 minutes.

5. Let the pound cake cool for 20 minutes in the pan. Then carefully remove the cake from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack for another 40 minutes before slicing. This pound cake recipe serves up to 16 people.

Tips & Warnings

• Bake a chocolately, nutty pound cake using the same recipe. After mixing the original ingredients, fold in 2 ounces of grated, unsweetened baking chocolate and one-half cup of your favorite nuts.