All-Butter Pound Cake with Powdered Sugar Glaze — Finally a homemade pound cake that isn’t dry!! This EASY, buttery, velvety pound cake will be the star of your next party or celebration!
Post is brought to you by Horizon Organic. The recipes, images, text, video, and opinions expressed are my own.
Table of Contents
Simple Pound Cake with Icing
There is a first for everything, and after 10+ years of blogging this is the first pound cake recipe I’ve ever published. Why have I waited so long, you may ask?
The simple answer is that usually I find pound cakes to be dry and boring, but since this all-butter pound cake is neither, it’s finally a recipe worth sharing!
The homemade pound cake has a tight crumb with a dense yet soft interior. It’s buttery, rich, and luxurious-tasting with a slight crispiness to the exterior.
I made a simple powdered sugar glaze for the pound cake to dress it up a bit and make it pretty enough to serve at your next holiday party or celebration. This is one big and rich cake and will definitely feed a crowd of hungry friends and family.
Butter Pound Cake Ingredients
This is a very straightforward cake, and while you’ll need a few more ingredients than traditional pound cake recipes call for I still kept things as simple as possible.
Pound Cake:
This is a recipe for butter pound cake. Be sure to buy high-quality butter for the best results!
Here’s what you need to make the pound cake:
- Horizon Organic Unsalted Butter
- Granulated sugar
- Horizon Organic Large Eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Horizon Organic Whole Milk
- Salt
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract
Pound Cake Glaze:
The pound cake features a simple confectioners’ sugar glaze. You may add vanilla extract to make it a vanilla pound cake glaze, if desired.
Gather the following ingredients:
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Horizon Organic Whole Milk
Ingredient Tip
There’s 1 cup of Horizon Organic Whole Milk in the cake. It’s certified organic, meaning there are no GMOs, no antibiotics, no added hormones, no persistent pesticides, and the humane treatment of cows. It brings 50% more vitamin D than typical whole milk in every delicious serving.
I used additional Horizon Organic Whole Milk as well to make the pound cake glaze.
How to Make Butter Pound Cake
Making a butter pound cake from scratch is easier than you might think! Here are the basic steps to this recipe:
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and cream on medium-high speed until fluffy.
- Then, add the sugar and and beat until smooth and incorporated.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the flour and milk.
- Lastly, add the salt, extracts, and beat until just combined.
- Turn the batter into a greased 12-cup Bundt pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter.
- Once the homemade pound cake has cooled completely, whisk together the powdered sugar glaze and drizzle over the cake.
Homemade Pound Cake FAQs
In times past, pound cakes were literally made with a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. This recipe comes pretty darn close. There is indeed one pound of butter (4 sticks), over one pound of sugar, almost a pound worth of eggs, and nearly one pound of flour. If there’s ever a time for indulging in pound cake, ’tis the season.
Regular sponge cakes use far less butter, resulting in an cake that’s heavier on the eggs and flour. This results in lighter, spongier cakes that can be frosted and layered as desired.
Pound cake, on the other hand, traditionally uses equal parts eggs, butter, sugar, and flour. The result is a denser, less moist cake that’s best eaten as is (i.e. not dressed up in frosting and definitely NOT layered!).
Pound cake got its name because the original recipe used a pound each of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs. That’s a big cake!
One thing I strive for in sharing recipes is to make them accessible and give different options based on what baking supplies and equipment you’re working with. I baked the pound cake in a 12-cup Bundt pan and had about 3/4 cup batter leftover and baked that in a mini loaf pan. The Bundt pan baked for 1 hour 15 minutes and the mini loaf pan baked for 47 minutes.
If you have a 10-cup tube pan, that will hold all of the batter, I estimate it will take 1 hour 15 minutes to bake as well.
Pound cakes don’t rise quite as much as normal cake and so if you would normally fill a cake pan about 50-60% full, you can fill your pan to about 75% with the pound cake batter.
Make sure you don’t overbake the butter pound cake or it will for sure turn out dry and crumbly. Similarly, if the outside of your homemade pound cake is tough it could be that your oven runs hot. Pop an oven thermometer into your oven to check that it runs at a constant temperature.
Light vs. dark-colored pans will also bake differently. Light bundt pans are better for baking, as dark pans distribute heat more quickly and can create a tough exterior.
Yes, this moist pound cake can be frozen without the glaze. To thaw, simply place on your counter and bring to room temperature.
Not necessarily! Butter pound cake will keep for up to 5 days at room temperature. I am comfortable storing glazed items at room temperature, but if you are not, store in the fridge, noting the cake will be more prone to drying out.
Favorite Pound Cake Toppings
Personally, I think this moist butter pound cake needs just the glaze and it’s perfect as is! Otherwise you’re welcome to top the cake with one or more of the following:
- Fresh berries
- Whipped cream
- Fresh mint or basil
- Lemon curd or jam
- Blueberry or strawberry sauce
- Hot fudge
- Salted caramel sauce
Pound Cake Variations to Try
As a tip, when making the powdered sugar glaze you can substitute the Horizon Organic Whole Milk for Horizon Organic Eggnog. It’s a seasonal item but if you’re feeling like making this into an eggnog pound cake, go for it.
Likewise, you can add a teaspoon of vanilla to the pound cake icing to give it a vanilla flavor.
I used a mixture of vanilla and almond extracts for flavor. Not everyone has almond extract on hand or enjoys the flavor and if you’re in that camp, you can omit it and stick with just vanilla extract by adding an extra teaspoon.
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Easy Glazed Pound Cake
Ingredients
Pound Cake
- 1 pound Horizon Organic Unsalted Butter, softened
- 3 cups organic granulated sugar
- 6 Horizon Organic Large Eggs, at room temp
- 3 cups organic all-purpose flour
- 1 cup Horizon Organic Whole Milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract, may be omitted and use 3 teaspoons vanilla extract instead
Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon Horizon Organic Whole Milk, or as needed for consistency
Instructions
For the Pound Cake:
- Preheat oven to 325F and spray a 12-cup Bundt pan plus 1 mini loaf pan (for the excess batter) OR a 10-inch tube pan very well with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or handheld electric mixer), add the butter and cream on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the sugar and and beat until smooth and incorporated, about 2 minutes.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the flour and milk, alternately, while beating on medium-low speed to incorporate; don’t overmix.
- Add the salt, extracts, and beat until just combined.
- Turn batter out into prepared pans, smoothing the tops lightly with a spatula.
- Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes (and I baked my mini loaf for 47 minutes). Start checking at 1 hour and bake until done, whatever that means in your oven and with your pans, until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter. Do not overbake.
- Allow cake to cool in pan for about 30 minutes before inverting it onto a serving platter to cool completely.
For the Glaze:
- To a small bowl, add the confectioners’ sugar, milk, and whisk to combine.
- Evenly drizzle the glaze down the sides of the cake before serving.
Notes
- Note – this pound cake does not rise as much as a normal cake so if you would normally fill a cake pan about 50-60% full, you can fill to about 75% with the pound cake batter. Based on the types of pans you have, you may be able to fit it all in one pan or you may need to use a mini loaf pan for the excess, or you can simply discard the extra small amount of batter if it will not comfortably fit in your pan.
- Cake will keep for up to 5 days at room temp. I am comfortable storing glazed items at room temp but if you are not, store in the fridge, noting the cake will be more prone to drying out.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Post is brought to you by Horizon Organic. The recipes, images, text, video, and opinions expressed are my own.