The instructions below will give you a rich pound cake with an incredible crumb and rich texture. Despite the delicious results, it wasn't quite the same as my wife remembered. After a little trial and error, we found the difference - my wife's grandmother would just dump all of the ingredients below in a bowl and cream with an electric mixer. The resulting batter is much more runny and bakes up with an incredible soft and light texture. If you want a traditional pound cake follow the steps below. If you want a light and delicate version, just put it all in a bowl and mix. Either way, it's the best pound cake I've ever had.

Prep: 20 min Cook: 1 hour - 1 hour 20 min Total: 1 hour 40 min Yields 1 cake or 3 loaves

Two Hours Before

2 cups (4 sticks) butter

Place butter on counter and let rise to room temperature.

Batter

Preheat oven to 350°F.

reserved butter

In a separate large bowl, cream butter using an electric mixer.

3 cups sugar

Add sugar to butter and cream with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

8 eggs

Add eggs one a time and cream with an electric mixer until fully combined. Set aside.

4 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

1 cup milk

2 ½ teaspoons almond extract

Pour milk into a measuring cup and add almond extract to milk.

reserved flour mixture

reserved milk

Add ½ of the flour mixture and ½ of the milk to the creamed butter and beat with an electric mixer to combine. Repeat with remaining milk and flour and mix to combine.

Baking

cooking spray

parchment paper

Lightly coat a large bundt pan or three (3) loaf pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Allow paper to hang out over sides to make it easier to pull out pound cake.

Pour batter into bundt pan or divide batter evenly between loaf pans. Bake at 350°F until top is golden brown and an instant read thermometer inserted into the center reads 195°F, about 1 hour to 1 hour 20 min.

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Licensed from https://www.makebetterfood.com/recipes/pound-cake/