How To Make A Crunchy Top Pound Cake

The words "dense" and "heavy" aren't frequently used to describe a typical American cake (that is, unless something went incorrect). Ordinarily cake is expected to be light and fluffy, only this goal can be hard to achieve. When a block falls curt, information technology ends up being dry out and spongy instead.

Pound block is here to change the idea that all cakes must exist airy and delicate.

Pound cake is moist, tender, and also pleasantly dense if baked merely correct. When made past a practiced baker, pound cake defies all other cakes with its distinctive texture — but make sure yous follow these half-dozen tips for ultimate success.

A pound cake on a wooden board cut into slices — Pound block makes a statement with its substantial texture — cake should exist able to concord upwards to sauce, fruit toppings, whipped cream, and even grilling!

First, choose your pound cake recipe

When it comes to pound block recipes that have the King Arthur test kitchen stamp of approval, the one that always draws me in is the luxurious Velvet Pound Block. It has a virtually-perfect five-star rating, thanks to its lovely golden brownish crust and ever-so-tender texture.

What sets it autonomously from a classic pound cake? It has an untraditional ingredient that you'll want to add to all of your cakes after making this recipe: cream cheese. Pound cakes are known for their buttery rich flavor and sturdy crumb; foam cheese elevates both of these traits to the next level.

A golden vanilla pound cake cut into slices — Our trusty Velvet Pound Cake, a truthful recipe for success.

Select your pound cake recipe based on the sweet experience you want to have — choose from flavors like maple-rum, chai spice, or even orange pound cake with a boozy glaze. These tips apply to whatsoever pound cake you lot're baking.

Tip #1: Use room-temperature ingredients

A cardinal rule of block baking is to begin with room-temperature ingredients (unless otherwise chosen for in the recipe). While it's tempting to pull the eggs and butter straight from the refrigerator and become right to block baking, it's worth the endeavor to ensure your ingredients are the right temperature.

What happens if you commencement with cold ingredients? You'll face trouble from the commencement when you try to beat difficult sticks of butter with sugar. The mixer will groan, the butter will flail, and you'll end upwardly picking upwardly cold chunks spewed out across your counter. And if the cream cheese is cold, it too will exist a lumpy, difficult mess.

A bowl of dry ingredients next to eggs and butter — Room-temperature butter is key to successful creaming and cake texture.

If you forget to set your ingredients out at room temperature in advance, here are a few tricks to speed upwards the warming process:

Butter: Beware the microwave shortcut! It'll turn sections of the butter into flowing lava while other parts remain firm. Instead, fill a medium-sized bowl with water and heat it in the microwave until it boils. (Alternately, you can utilise a pot on the stove to heat the water.) Cut the butter into tablespoon-sized chunks and once the h2o boils, carefully dump it out of the basin (or pot). Turn the now-empty (but nevertheless hot and steamy) vessel over the butter and allow it sit for a few minutes, until the butter is perfectly soft.
Eggs: Place cold eggs in a bowl of very hot water for most 5 minutes while you measure out out the remainder of your ingredients (setting out your measured ingredients, by the way, is chosen "mise en place" and makes you expect similar a baking pro). Your eggs will be at room temperature and ready when you are.
Foam cheese: If you're using cream cheese that comes in a sealed foil packet, you lot can endeavour the same play tricks that's used to warm up eggs. If the cream cheese is in a plastic container, mensurate the corporeality needed for the recipe and oestrus it in x-second bursts in the microwave, stirring betwixt each interval until it'south like shooting fish in a barrel to mix.

You only need to follow these steps if you forget to have the ingredients out of the refrigerator in accelerate. If y'all plan ahead, you tin cut correct to the pound cake blistering.

Tip #ii: Measure out your flour properly

When information technology comes to pound cake, it'southward all almost ratios of ingredients. Later on all, pound cake got its name because early versions were fabricated by using a pound each of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter (or some other fatty). Today's versions tend to have slightly less flour compared to the eggs, saccharide, and butter, which ensures a moist texture. Too much flour results in a dense, dry, and bland final product, and no i wants that from a pound block.

To avoid this common pitfall, make sure yous measure out your flour properly. If you're serious about pound cake (or really, any kind of baking), consider using a calibration. Information technology'll transform your baking for the improve, making all your measurements super exact.

A baker measuring flour into a bowl on a scale — *All Rex Arthur recipes include gram measures as well as volume, so y'all don't need to exercise any calculations to decide ingredient weights.*

If you're married to your measuring cups or you're adamant to make pound block but like your grandma, you can withal measure ingredients accurately using book. The primal is to use the "fluff, sprinkle, sweep" method.

By gently sprinkling the flour into the cup, you'll stop up with "light" cups of flour and a tender cake every fourth dimension.

Tip #three: Apply the correct pan (both in size and cloth)

Don't just grab the get-go pan you lot come across in your pantry and cascade in your pound cake concoction. This is some other moment for careful choices. Near pound cakes, Velvet Pound Block included, are broiled in a 9" x five" loaf pan. This is a slightly larger pan than a standard loaf pan, which measures 8 one/2" past 4 one/2".

If an eight 1/2" x 4 ane/2" loaf pan is all y'all have on hand, it'll work in a pinch, simply consider setting aside about i/3 to 1/2 cup of concoction to brand cupcakes (or fifty-fifty pancakes!). If y'all fill up the pan to the brim with concoction, it'll overflow during baking, and that's just no fun at all.

A stack of loaf pans on a kitchen table — Pans that take a corrugated surface let more air circulation during blistering and yield a tender-crisp crust, which is a delightful add-on to pound block.

Size isn't the but quality to accept into consideration when blistering the all-time-ever pound block. The material of the pan also makes a difference in the terminal product. Common choices include metallic, glass, and ceramic.

Metal is a proficient usher of rut — it warms up quickly, encourages browning, and produces evenly baked results. Glass, on the other paw, takes quite a while to rut upwards and and then continues to get hotter, ofttimes making the edges of baked goods hard and overbaked while the eye remains underbaked.

Three pound cakes, side by side, baked in three different pans: metal, glass, and ceramic — 3 batches of our Gilded Vanilla Pound Cake baked in 3 different pans: glass, metal, and ceramic. Slices volition vary in size based on the shape of your pan, as seen hither. For a symmetrical, alpine piece that'south quite pretty, attempt baking pound cake in a Pain de Mie Pain.

Ceramic and stoneware are wild cards. Depending on the specific pan, it might have longer or shorter than the baking time called for. If y'all love your ceramic pan, take some fourth dimension to go to know information technology and take notes on how you adjust your baking time so you can anticipate the change in the hereafter. (Read more details in our blog mail, Glass or metallic or stoneware.)

Tip #4: Don't overbake

Once the pound cake is in the oven, take a deep breath but don't become also far away! The last thing you want is to forget about your cake and let it become toasted and dry.

Pound cakes take longer than most traditional cakes to broil — upward of 1 hour for the Velvet Pound Cake! This extended bake time can be the enemy of whatsoever baker; it's just enough time for y'all to become absorbed in your next project while forgetting about your last. Set a timer or stick around the kitchen, soaking up the vanilla scent that wafts from the oven equally your pound cake bakes.

Tip #5: Use a cake soak

If the idea of soaking a block is new to you lot, buckle up for a whole new baking risk! Cake soaks or soaking syrups are flavorful liquids, usually simple-syrup based, that are brushed onto block afterward it comes out of the oven.

A yellow cake being brushed with simple syrup — Simple syrup is frequently brushed on sponge cake, equally seen here — but it's also correct at home on a pound cake, too.

Soaking block is a proficient thought in near every baking situation. Even a perfectly broiled block can become dry in a day or ii; applying a block soak adds moistness while besides giving y'all the opportunity to add boosted flavors. Convinced you lot need to endeavor this? Good.

For a 9" x 5" pound cake, use up to 1/ii cup (113g) of a soaking liquid and brush onto the withal-warm cake. Hither are some quick ideas for inspiration, based on the flavor profile you're going for:

Vanilla soaking syrup: Combine 1/3 cup (67g) sugar, five teaspoons water, and a compression of salt. Rut briefly, only to dissolve the sugar, so stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
Lemon soaking syrup: Mix the juice of 1 lemon (nearly 50g) with ane/ii cup (99g) sugar, and heat until the carbohydrate dissolves.
Rum soaking syrup: In a medium-sized saucepan, combine four tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons (26g) h2o, i/2 cup (99g) sugar, 1/eight teaspoon salt and ane/iv cup (57g) rum. Bring to a rapid boil, reduce to simmer, and cook (without stirring) for about five minutes, until the syrup thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and add one/4 teaspoon of vanilla excerpt.
Coffee soaking syrup: Mix together 2 tablespoons (28g) coffee liqueur, ane 1/2 tablespoons espresso powder, ii tablespoons (23g) sugar, and 1/2 cup (113g) hot water.

A baker brushing lemon glaze on a pound cake — *"Borrow" the soaking syrup or coat from whatever other block recipe (like the lemon glaze from our Lemon Bliss Cake) and apply it to your pound block to amp up the flavor.*

Tip #6: Serve with manner

While I'm virtually definitely on Team Pound Block, I'll admit that it can be a bit unexciting if the cake is served all on its own. (I mean, I'd all the same happily gobble upwardly an unadorned slice with my morning cup of tea or coffee, but nosotros're looking to impress here.)

To elevate your homemade pound block to a next-level dessert, recall about everything yous could put on the plate for decorative flair to make the block shine.

Sauces? Nigh definitely. Hot Fudge Sauce or Caramel Sauce would be wonderful.

Bowls of hot fudge and caramel sauce

Fruit? Another definitive yes, especially if the fruit is macerated with carbohydrate and a splash of your favorite liqueur (totally optional, though delicious). If all you lot have on hand is unripe fruit, consider roasting it to raise the flavor.
Other toppings? The sky'southward the limit! A dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream is simple and elegant, while chopped dark chocolate and toasted nuts could exist sprinkled beyond the slice for texture, too.

A slice of pound cake topped with fresh blueberries

You lot can even grill thickly cut slices if you lot're eating outdoors and feeling the al fresco vibes. Brush both sides of the cake slices with butter earlier grilling for a rich flavor and lovely golden crust.

If you go the grilling road, refrigerate the block for a few hours before slicing — common cold slices hold up better during grilling. They'll exist warm, toasty, and delicious by the fourth dimension they're served.

A slice of pound cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce on top

Bottom line: This is your cake. Even if you're baking it for someone else, you're still the baker then it'south up to y'all. Dress the cake upward as you wish or let people garnish their ain slices, ice cream sundae style. Everyone will be happy when at that place's bootleg pound cake around.

Pound cake for anybody

Once you lot discover the effeminateness that is perfectly baked pound block, yous'll want to bake it for everyone — even those with dietary restrictions. With our Gluten-Free Vanilla Pound Cake recipe, you'll never be at a loss.

Gluten-free pound cake baked in a loaf pan and cut into slices on a wooden cutting board

Cake is about sweetness, indulgence, and happiness. If you want a bit more of this in your life, or if you want to infuse someone else's with goodness, broil our Velvet Pound Cake and let the joy spread all around. Happy blistering!

What other cakes are yous baking this flavour? Bundt cakes? Layer cakes? Maybe trifles? Let usa know which cake recipes you're about excited near in the comments, below.

Source: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2020/08/17/how-to-make-the-ultimate-pound-cake

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