Best, classic, old fashioned, traditional, quick and easy buttermilk pound cake recipe, homemade with simple ingredients from scratch. Soft, moist, dense, firm and packed with vanilla flavor!
If you liked my Cream Cheese Pound Cake and this Sour Cream Pound Cake or this Marble Pound Cake, you will love this version too.
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How to make buttermilk pound cake recipe?
- Cream together butter and sugar.
- Mix in eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add flour and baking soda.
- Pour batter in greased pans.
- Bake.
How to make homemade buttermilk?
I know this is not something we have on hand all the time but no worries. Make a great buttermilk substitute at home by mixing together 1 cup whole milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Mix and then, use in this recipe.
Variations
The great thing about this cake is that you can play around with extracts and frostings and drizzles/ glazes and really change up the flavor without changing the recipe too much.
- Try different flavors of icing/ frosting– Use fruity frostings like Maraschino Cherry Frosting or Easy Orange Frosting or Blackberry Buttercream Frosting or Mango Frosting.
- Add glaze– It’s a very easy recipe that’s made by mixing together the following ingredients until smooth and creamy: 2 cups Powdered sugar, 2 tablespoon Whole milk, 1 tablespoon Butter (Unsalted, Melted) 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract. You can replace vanilla with other extracts and zests to change up the flavor.
- Add different extracts and zests- Try lemon zest and extract to make a delicious lemon buttermilk pound cake. You can also use lime or orange zest/ extract instead of vanilla.
- Chocolate buttermilk pound cake- This is my favorite way to enjoy this cake. Top off the cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting or Coconut Cream Chocolate Frosting and also sprinkle lots of chocolate chips.
Tips and Techniques
- Use full fat ingredients- Such as full fat cream cheese and real butter because that makes this cake rich and moist. No fat free or low fat ingredients!
- Use unsalted butter- Because this prevents the cake from becoming too salty.
- Use a bundt pan or loaf pan- I like to use 2 loaf pans but you can use a 10 inch bundt pan too. The baking time will be about the same.
- Don’t reduce the bake time! This cake takes about 1 hour to 1.5 hours to fully bake because it is a dense cake and has a thick batter.
- Can you freeze pound cake? Yes. Once it fully cools down, wrap it in saran wrap and put into a sealed freezer bag and freeze for up to 1 month. Let it thaw in the fridge overnight.
- Do I need to chill the cake overnight? I highly recommend it because it allows the cake to firm up even more and allows you to make smooth and even slices without any crumbs.
- Don’t over-mix cake batter- Because this will yield a tough cake and it can also cause the cake to collapse/sink during baking.
- Bake at 325 degrees F– Since the bake time is so long, baking at a higher temperature of 350 degrees F can cause the cake to over-brown and burn. This lower temperature yields better results.
- Decorate it! I kept it very classic and didn't do anything fancy but you can decorate with a dusting of powdered sugar. You can even drizzle a simple vanilla or lemon glaze or this Homemade Caramel Sauce or even Nutella Syrup. I think it's best served with Homemade Whipped Cream and fresh berries. You can also get very creative and decorate with sprinkles, candies, chocolate chips and even fresh flowers.
Other classic cake recipes
- Best Vanilla Cake Recipe (From Scratch)
- Chocolate Bundt Cake (From Scratch)
- Angel Food Cake
- Easy Black Forest Cake (With Cake Mix)
- Depression Cake (Wacky Cake)
- Homemade Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Moist Red Velvet Cake
- Louisiana Crunch Cake
Recipe
Buttermilk Pound Cake
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- 1 cup Butter Unsalted, Room temoerature
- 2 ½ cups Granulated sugar
- 4 Eggs Large
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 3 cups All-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda.
- Dump the dry mixture into the wet mixture, while mixing and alternating with buttermilk until just combined.
- Pour batter into 2 greased/ floured loaf pans (Dimensions: 8 x4). Spread it out evenly with a spatula.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean. Don’t forget to rotate your pan halfway through baking. This ensures the cakes bake and brown evenly.
- Allow the cakes to cool down for 10 minutes. Then, remove them from the pans and let them cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Cover in saran wrap and chill in fridge overnight. This way, you will be able to slice perfect smooth slices the next day without any crumbs. Enjoy!
- Read all my tips above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
Until next time, tata my lovelies!
Lisa
This is an excellent buttermilk pound cake. I usually bake my pound cakes in a tube pan because I love the crusty top which you lose when it is in bundt form. Baking it in 2 loaf pans is very convenient for sharing though. I flavored this with lemon extract since it is my grandchildren's favorite kind of pound cake. I will be making this one frequently! Thanks for posting this recipe.
Kathi
The best pound cake recipe I've ever made. Even my husband, who is all about chocolate, thinks it's good. Easy to put together.
Abeer Rizvi
That makes me so happy!
Dorothy
This is so easy to make and it is delicious. I just made 2 more loaves this time with half vanilla and half almond flavoring! It’s perfect for strawberry shortcake.! Yummy
Hanna
Super easy instructions and tastes AMAZING. I highly recommend making this cake. I used a square tin since I don't have two loaf tins or a bunt pan but it still came out perfect. 10/10 definitely
Cynthia
This looks so yummy. I plan to make it soon and keep in the freezer for strawberry shortcake season.
Wanda E Johnson-Halminski
I have made this cake twice lately and about to go make again.I use bundt pan ,teaspoon vanilla,teaspoon lemon extract then top with a lemon glaze ,fresh strawberries or peaches whip cream it's amazing.You can't go wrong with this cake. Delicious.
Sarah Carter
Have you ever cut the recipe in half? Would I do 1/8 tsp of baking soda?
Abeer Rizvi
I have never cut this recipe in half to know what would happen. If you try it, I would love to hear how it goes.
Amy
This was easy and absolutely delish. Great texture and flavor. I almost cut recipe in half, as I really only needed one for a birthday favorite that calls for frozen Sara Lee, and expected the final result to be less than standard. Trust me, make two this will get eaten fast, and from now on I have to make home made pound cake for our go to Viennese Tortes.
Amy
I made your cakes today. I don’t have the same pan, so I used my wee 3X5 pans and made 5 little cakes. I baked them for about 35 min at the same temp. They are delicious! I’m bring two to my sweet neighbor and her 92 year old husband. Thanks for the great recipe!
Abeer Rizvi
Awwww. That's so sweet!
Diane Snyder
I made 1/2 batch, substituting Splenda for the sugar. I also added the zest of one lemon. I baked it for 60 minutes. The toothpick came out clean so I thought it was good. Nope. After cooling I had a slice and - although flavorful, it was too underdone.
I refrigerated it overnight. The next day I sliced it into 1/2” planks. I baked them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then turned off the oven, and flipped them upside down and left them in the oven another ten minutes.
Omg these are the best biscotti I ever had.
THANK YOU!
Abeer Rizvi
It's so cool to see how you turned this cake into a biscotti. Love that idea!