This Butter Pound Cake recipe is a classic that never goes out of style. Made with luscious butter and heavy whipped cream, this old fashioned pound cake has the most tender crumb, moist texture and versatility. Serve with berries and whipped cream, with a glaze of your choice or enjoy completely plain for a southern treat like none other!

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A slice of butter pound cake being lifted out of full cake with berries on white cake plate

If there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I love to bake my cake and eat it too. There’s nothing more satisfying than spending time in the kitchen busting out chocolate layers, shortcakes and confetti surprises. Each cake is uniquely delicious and deserves to be indulgently enjoyed. I mean, every girl deserves a treat right?

Table of Contents

The Heart and Soul of this Butter Pound Cake Recipe

Cuisine Inspiration: Classic Southern
Primary Cooking Method: Baking
Dietary Info: Vegetarian
Key Flavor: Rich and Buttery
Skill Level: Intermediate

Sweet Highlights:

Time-Honored Tradition: This recipe is a throwback to simpler times, bringing the classic and comforting flavors of the South right into your kitchen.
Simple Ingredients, Big Flavor: With just a few staple ingredients, this cake boasts a rich, buttery flavor that’s hard to resist.
Versatile and Crowd-Pleasing: Whether it’s a family gathering, holiday, or just because, this butter pound cake is sure to please any crowd.
Texture Perfection: Achieve that perfect crumbly yet moist texture, a hallmark of a well-made pound cake.
Sweet Memory Maker: Baking this cake is not just about the delicious end result; it’s about creating sweet memories and honoring baking traditions.

Close up overhead of Old Fashioned Pound Cake with raspberries and blueberries on top as garnish

Old Fashioned Pound Cake Ingredients

The ingredients that make the best old fashioned pound cake are the following:

Butter
Sugar
Eggs
Flour
Whipping Cream

Make sure you use high quality butter for this cake. It makes all the difference. Beating together with sugar at the beginning of the recipe adds air to lift the cake in addition to the leavening added.

Eggs are stabilizers in a cake so this cake has 6 to make sure it stays sturdy.

Flour is also a stabilizer. I used cake flour but I did sift to make sure it had a lighter texture.

Heavy whipped cream is another key ingredient just like butter. Have you ever whipped cream until it became butter? That’s double the butter taste in this cake.

Close up of sliced old fashioned pound cake with whipped cream and berries ready to serve

How to Make Butter Pound Cake

Prepare: Preheat your oven to 325 F and generously spray a 10-cup bundt pan with non-stick baking spray.
Cream it Up: In your mixer, blend butter, salt, and sugar on high for 3-4 minutes until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla, mixing well and scraping the bowl as needed.
Flour Addition: On low speed, gently add flour in two batches, taking care not to overbeat. Follow with whipping cream, mix until just combined, then turn off the mixer.
Bake and Cool: Pour the batter into the bundt pan, bake for 1 hour and 15-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a plate and let it cool completely.

Tips

Tip 1: Pan Preparation

Liberally spray your bundt pan with non-stick baking spray or heavily coat it with butter and flour. Don’t be cheap here. Pound cakes are notorious for sticking to the pan and ruining your cake aesthetic dreams.

Tip 2: Room Temperature Ingredients

Before starting up on your batter be sure to allow your eggs and butter to come to room temperature. Adding cold eggs to warm butter will cause them to seize. Also, avoid softening butter in the microwave because it will get too hot and won’t properly cream later on. Simply allow your eggs and butter to sit on the counter for a few hours so that they reach the same temperature.

Tip 3: Don’t Over beat!

Turn your mixer down to its lowest speed and slowly add flour and baking soda into the batter. Be careful not to over beat. Over mixing with a heavy hand will cause the batter to deflate, and all your hard work creaming will be reversed. The result will be a dense, tough cake. Try to stop the mixer when you start to see white streaks running through the batter.

Tip 4: Flipping Your Cake

After you’ve removed the cake from the oven, set it on a wire rack and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes. A hot cake is too delicate to be removed from the pan. But don’t wait too long to take it out! Gently invert the pan and remove the cake, then let it finish cooling completely on the rack.

Slices of butter pound cake on white plates ready to serve

How To Serve Old Fashioned Pound Cake

Because this cake is seriously so versatile, here are some ideas for how to serve this cake:

Plain (this cake tastes amazing on its own)
With berries and whipped cream
With a glaze (this Caramel Cake icing is incredible!! Half the recipe and cooking time and pour over the cake) or try this icing from my Brown Sugar Pound Cake.
Serve with ice cream while warm

Now it’s time for the fun part, dress up your cake any way you would like and serve!

More Pound Cake Recipes

If you adore pound cakes like I do, try my Lemon Pound Cake, Chocolate Pound Cake, Sour Cream Pound Cake or even my Cream Cheese Pound Cake.