Cultured Butter Poundcake
This pound cake is simple to make, if you follow a couple of rules: Beat the butter and sugar until very light and very fluffy— this incorporates more air into the cake’s structure. Room temperature butter and eggs will also blend easier and trap more air when beaten, helping the cake rise and achieve its tender, delicate texture. Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours (Houghton Mifflin, 2006).Makes one 9-inch-by-5-inch loaf
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 lemon zested
- 8 ounces 2 sticks unsalted cultured butter, room temperature, plus more for greasing pan
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325°F. Stack 2 rimmed baking sheets on top of each other. Butter a 9-inch-by- 5-inch loaf pan and place it on top of the baking sheets.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Rub sugar and lemon zest together in a small bowl with your fingers until zest is fragrant and incorporated into the sugar.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, until mixture is pale and very fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure all of the sugar gets mixed in.
- Add eggs to butter mixture, one at a time, mixing on medium speed until fully incorporated before scraping down the sides and adding the next egg. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
- Add dry ingredients to the batter and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Remove bowl from mixer base and give the batter a quick additional stir with a spatula.
- Transfer batter to the prepared pan and place in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, then open the oven—if it looks as if the top is browning too quickly, cover the pan with aluminum foil and return to the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes. The cake is done when a knife or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool cake in the pan for 30 minutes before sliding a knife around the edge of the pan, then inverting and transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.
Notes
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan
Leigh Belanger
Leigh Belanger is culture's former food editor. She's been a food writer, editor, and project manager for over a decade— serving as program director for Chefs Collaborative and contributing to local newspapers and magazines. Her first book, The Boston Homegrown Cookbook, was published in 2012. She lives and cooks in Boston with her family.
