This Brown Sugar Pound Cake Recipe is a luscious and tender pound cake made deliciously sweet with the depth of flavor from the molasses of brown sugar and taken over the top with a incredibly nutty brown butter glaze. With a texture similar to my Sour Cream Pound Cake or even my Cream Cheese Pound Cake, this pound cake is a keeper especially when fall rolls around. If you love cakes like my Caramel Cake and and the brown butter flavor in my Apple Cake and Kentucky Butter Cake, you will adore this!!!!
What happened to this year? I can’t even tell you. Where did it go? As I type this, I am looking at the leaves change to beautiful warm tones that make my spirit dance inside. I’m also experiencing the first signs of winter. I walked outside this past weekend and could see my breath in the air.
I have mixed feelings about it all. Part of me cannot WAIT for the holiday season to officially begin because happiness enters my heart in a way I cannot describe.
Another part of me wants life to slow down because it is going way too dang fast! I’m on a roller coaster that I can’t stop. It is exhilarating and completely scary all at the same time.
Instead of staying all the way in my feelings, I bake. It is what I do when I can’t quite cope or really don’t know what to do. This brown sugar pound cake recipe was born out of those wishy washy feelings. I’m embracing the changes of the season and getting a little holiday baking started (P.S. this cake is perfection for Thanksgiving!). I can’t tell you how therapeutic baking this cake was, not to mention how delicious it was to eat.
What is a Brown Sugar Pound Cake?
This brown sugar pound cake recipe is the perfect holiday cake or cake to bake anytime its a special occasion this fall. It is absolute perfection. The brown sugar really takes this recipe up a notch. The molasses adds a depth of flavor to the sweetness that cannot be described. This cake is also incredibly tender and dense with the most wonderful texture.
How to Make Brown Butter Glaze
To take it over the top, I added a brown butter glaze. I love brown butter like in these Blondies. The brown butter glaze is just out of this world y’all! I thought nothing could be better than the cake itself but that’s before the glaze dressed it up. Let’s just say brown sugar and brown butter are meant to be together.
Tips for Brown Butter: Make sure that you watch your brown butter closely as you make it. You need to make sure that you are allowing it to slowly brown and not end up burning.
Specs of brown butter are a nice clue. Your butter will start to foam, and it is fantastic.
This cake is a holiday keeper and a must for your dessert table (especially if you use a gorgeous bundt pan like I did from Nordic Ware which is below. It is also a lovely cake to deal with the feelings that this time of year truly brings out. Baking it might just heal you a bit just like it did for me.
If you want more pound cake recipes like my lemon pound cake recipe or even my amazing chocolate pound cake or , or even 7 up pound cake recipe, click HERE
Looking for more cakes? Try my most popular cake, the real deal caramel cake?
Brown Sugar Pound Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 cups light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 cup sour cream room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
For the Glaze:
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and browned until specs appear
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and prepare your 10 cup bundt pan with shortening and flour or non-stick baking spray.
- In your mixer bowl, cream together butter, both sugars and salt on high speed until light and fluffy for 5 minutes.
- Next add in eggs, one at a time, and mix until well incorporated.
- Slow mixer to lowest speed and carefully add in flour then add in sour cream and extract and cream until just combined.
- Pour cake batter into bundt pan and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out moist but mostly clean.
- Cool cake for 10 minutes then invert cake onto cooling rack and cool until room temperature.
For the Glaze:
- Whisk together brown butter, confectioner's sugar and milk.
- Drizzle glaze over cooled cake and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Can the glaze be poured on a few hours ahead of serving time? Will it get soggy, or does it just cool and harden a little? I don’t want to tie up someone else stovetop during a holiday meal crunch.
Yes you can definitely do this ahead of time.
Oh my goodness! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made it this weekend to celebrate my parents’ 58th wedding anniversary. They are LOVING it. Amazing taste, texture – vintage GOODNESS. This is why we bake for those we love. So grateful! I look forward to exploring your site and discovering more deliciousness.
I’ve made every pound cake on this site. Everyone of them have been over the top delicious. We have enjoyed them and can’t wait to bake the next one. The Brown Sugar with the Brown Sugar Glaze is the latest on my list. It reminds me of a cake my step mom made in the ’70’s. Thank you for sharing your recipes. They bought back memories of Sunday dinners and holidays with the family. Thank you for helping me to get in touch with my past. Respectfully. Ginnie Mae
Gracious Day !!!
I thought my Grand Mama’s cake was the texture of velvet ……I was wrong !
These Grandbaby-cakes are marshmallow in texture and the flavor is perfectly sweet—not too sweet–just perfect !
I made this cake with the intention of giving it to my neighbor as a Mother’s Day gift.
All I have to say is , Happy Mother’s Day……TO ME !!!
Most sincerely,
Henriette Hall
Have you ever made this cake splitting the brown sugar between light and dark or all dark brown sugar for the brown sugar? If so, what were the results…the taste?
I see that you are using all purpose flour and I was wondering why (I looked for this recipe online using cake flour and nobody is using it) everyone online is using all purpose flour. I was under the impression that cake flour was better in pound cake. Can I use cake flour instead in this recipe or should I just stick with plain ol all purpose? (considering that I am about to start making it and I can’t find anyone else using it) I think I will just stick to y’all’s recipe but I am gonna sift the all purpose flour, I think!!!
Because of the brown sugar in this cake, it makes it a very tender cake. I selected using the all purpose flour to make it a bit sturdier but it won’t make a difference in terms of the moistness. I do usually use cake flour for the rest of my recipes however but it really depends on the other ingredients as I am testing.
I’ve been baking cakes for my family and the public for forty years and always use plain flour. I find if you lower your oven temp 25 degrees it helps with the moistness and tenderness of the cake. My pet peeve is a dry cake. I wont serve it if it’s dry.
I love your recipes!!!…they’re always a hit whenever I make them. Thank you for sharing and making them simple to follow.
Molasses is mentioned in the description but not in the recipe. Is there supposed to be molasses in this recipe?
Molasses is found in brown sugar which is the main ingredient in the cake.
Trying to make this and there’s a typo or missing ingredient that leaves me stumped. Step 4 says “Slow mixer to lowest speed and carefully add in flour then add in sour cream and extract and cream until just combined.” WHERE IS THE CREAM? I don’t see it in the ingredients anywhere. I’ll just hope for the best since I have already began.
Cream is a step that means “mix”. There isn’t any cream in the actual recipe. So just mix all together.