Cold-Oven Pound Cake
By America's Test KitchenPublished on October 18, 2012
Time
2 hours, plus 2 hours cooling
Yield
Serves 12
Ingredients
Before You Begin
You'll need a 16-cup tube pan or angel food cake pan for this recipe; make sure to thoroughly grease and flour it. In step 2, don’t worry if the batter looks slightly separated.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Grease and flour 16-cup tube pan. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Whisk milk and vanilla in measuring cup.
- With electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of milk mixture. Mix on low until smooth, about 30 seconds. Use rubber spatula to give batter final stir.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Place cake in cold oven. Adjust oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake, without opening oven door, until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 65 to 80 minutes.
- Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours. Serve. (Cooled cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.)
Time
2 hours, plus 2 hours coolingYield
Serves 12Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
We wanted a pound cake recipe that produced an especially tall pound cake with a crisp crust. To create a light crumb, we used leaner whole milk instead of the heavy cream called for in most pound cake recipes. Swapping out all-purpose flour for cake flour yielded an even finer, more delicate crumb for our pound cake. We also used baking powder, which produced carbon dioxide bubbles that gave our pound cake its rise. Putting the pound cake into a cold oven gave the carbon dioxide more time to produce greater rise.
Before You Begin
You'll need a 16-cup tube pan or angel food cake pan for this recipe; make sure to thoroughly grease and flour it. In step 2, don’t worry if the batter looks slightly separated.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Grease and flour 16-cup tube pan. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Whisk milk and vanilla in measuring cup.
- With electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of milk mixture. Mix on low until smooth, about 30 seconds. Use rubber spatula to give batter final stir.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Place cake in cold oven. Adjust oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake, without opening oven door, until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 65 to 80 minutes.
- Cool cake in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours. Serve. (Cooled cake can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.)
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