I’ve used this Never Fail Pound Cake recipe for as long as I can remember. The original recipe came from the Colquitt, Georgia, First Baptist Church cookbook. With all due respect to the ladies of the First Baptist Church, I made a few changes to the original. And to tell the truth I think this recipe makes the best pound cake I’ve ever had. It’s moist. It’s buttery and the buttermilk gives it an extra pleasant sumthin’-sumthin’.
You can do lots of different things with this. You can serve it like I did this time with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and warm mixed berries or use it for the base of a fantastic strawberry shortcake. Or, you can do like BeeBop and I do sometimes and slice and toast it (yes, with a little butter) for breakfast. What? You never heard of pound cake toast? You really should try it.
Never Fail Pound Cake - a classic, old southern recipe for pound cake with the tang of buttermilk. Click To Tweet
Preheat the oven to 350. Butter or grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. This is my old, old tube pan. I don’t remember where this pan came from, but I have some kind of attachment to it. I also have an aversion to bundt pans. I can’t stand them. I don’t know why. My old tube pan has more dents in it than my daughter’s first car but I have not found a replacement for it so I just keep using it.
Cream butter and sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Like this:
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. And, no, I don’t know why this picture has such a yellow tint to it. Odd. Photoshop wouldn’t fix it, either. And I’m sure it couldn’t possibly be the amateur photographer.
Dissolve soda in buttermilk. Combine flour and salt. Add buttermilk and flour to creamed mixture alternately beginning and ending with flour mixture. One really important note: make sure your baking soda is fresh. Its reaction with the buttermilk is what makes this cake rise, so you don’t want to use the soda from that two-year old box that’s been in the back of your refrigerator. Ok?
Mix well after each addition. And if you could possibly manage to make as big a mess with the flour as I did, it would boost my self-esteem considerably. I’m just sayin’.
Stir in vanilla flavoring. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10-15 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack. Those cracks on the top are completely typical of pound cakes. That’s what I tell myself, don’t you?
For the Warm Berry Compote, place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring just to a boil over medium to medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes until thickened.
Enjoy!
Never Fail Pound Cake with Warm Berry Compote
A classic, old South pound cake recipe with the tang of buttermilk.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
For the Warm Berry Compote
- 2 cups frozen, mixed berries
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Cream butter and sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Dissolve soda in buttermilk. Combine flour and salt. Add buttermilk and flour to creamed mixture alternately beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix well after each addition. Stir in vanilla flavoring.
- Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10-15 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on a rack.
Make the Warm Berry Compote:
- Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring just to a boil over medium to medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes until thickened.
Notes
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This looks wonderful. I think I know where this pan came from. It looks like one that Gama had.
I made your cake this afternoon, and took it out of the oven as guests dropped in. We had some with coffee while it was still warm. Accolades all around! However, I did use a bundt pan (somehow, I never received a tube pan). Go figure.
Thanks!
Miss P
Glad it turned out good for you! It’s an oldie but goodie.
WOW!
I sure wish I had your tube pan~
I, too, can’t stand the bundt pans for some reason. To me a pound cake should be made in a tube pan!
Been looking all over for a tube pan because I lost mine a few years ago by allowing someone to borrow it, and I never got it back. It baked the best pound cakes to perfection.
Seems they just don’t sell old fashioned tube pans any longer. All I find are angel food pans. If anyone knows where they still sell a good, solid, one piece, heavy tube pan, please let me know :)
Your cake looks absolutely delicious! I am drooling over my keyboard!
Thanks a bunch
You might find one of the old ones on eBay. This one was my grandmother’s and I love it.
I’ve seen them pretty regularly at Goodwill and other thrift stores. Their housewares section can be a gold mine for old reliable cook and bake-ware.
Hello my name is Efigenia i am a pound cake lover make it for all my friends they keep asking for more about the tube pans i have a few maybe to many but i bougth mine at the second hand stores like Good Well even Walmart have it try it if you can,t find -it ask someone who works there enjoy your pound cakes its my favorite and all my family and friends have yourself a healthy happy day
Lana, You mentioned you didn’t know what they cooked the old fashioned one pound cake recipe in. Growing up in SC my mom, and relatives used the enamel dish pans to cook the big cakes in. They had a pan just for this purpose. They cooked the holiday nut cake, raisin cake and the fruitcakes in them. Mom would wrap the cake in wax paper and then wrap in newspaper and then wrap in old towels or old cloths of any kind and then store them in lard cans for up to a month before Christmas
Eve. We would beg for a tiny slice, but never was it cut until Christmas Eve. What a great memory. IF there was a tube pan at that time they could not afford them. Love reading and copying your recipes. Thank you for your work. I also love to cook.
Judy English
Well, I’ll be darned, Judy! I would never have thought that you could actually cook in those old enamel dish pans. Thanks for sharing that!
I made this pound cake for my hubby it is delicious….no complaints here. You Rock!
O my heavens, that cake looks positively perfect!! Buttermilk makes it a MUST try! I adore buttermilk. Thank you!
I made this cake today and it turned out great. I have a new go to recipe
I made this cake for Christmas and it turned out dense and some what tough. I’ve been baking pound cakes for 20+ yrs. I used a kitchenaide stand mixer, I did not over beat, but I did cream butter, unsalted butter by the way, a minute or so before adding sugar, I do not think that mattered but any suggestions.
Jerry – I can’t imagine what went wrong. I’ve made this cake probably 50 times and it’s never come out wrong for me. The only thing I can think of is that possibly your baking soda wasn’t fresh? Its reaction with the buttermilk is what gives the cake its rise.
Thanks so much for the response! By the way, does using unsalted vs salted butter matter?
Not as far as texture – just a slight difference in taste. Southerners tend to use salted butter for everything.
I would love to make this as a chocolate pound cake. Do you know how much and what kind of chocolate (powder vs baking chocolate)? This is similar to my sour cream recipe but with less eggs and butter so hopefully a little healthier.
I’m sorry, I don’t know. I’ve never made this recipe as a chocolate pound cake.
Hi Lana, Recipe looks amazingly easy. I really love your site. I do however would like to know if i could make a lemon pound cake with this recipe?
Hi Tammy – sorry but I’ve never used lemon flavoring with this recipe.
I am not fond of bundt pans either–too hard to wash up for one thing! I also have a very old dented tube pan. It belonged to my grandmother and it is my go-to pan. I am 63, so this is an OLD pan.
Just put this in the oven…. it’s always a winner. I’ll let you know how today’s version comes out. BTW – I generally use about 1 1/2 t. vanilla extract, and about 1 t. almond extract. Like the extra zing.
Miss P
Update – fabulous!! Moist and flavorful. I better take part of it to somebody tomorrow. Really. Too much temptation for that to be in the house!
Miss P
Glad it turned out well for you!