I Tried Our 5 Most Popular Pound Cake Recipes and the Best One Is Pretty Much Perfect

I put our best pound cakes to the test—and I didn't have anything negative to say about the winner.

I used to work for a local catering company and one of our most requested desserts was our grilled pound cake with fresh fruit and whipped cream. Since the operation didn’t employ any bakers, the pound cake was always store-bought. It wasn’t all that great, but I suppose after grilling it, drizzling with simple syrup, and topping with all of the pretty things, people didn’t care. But I cared and vowed to never buy that pound cake, and I never have. Not because I’m a food snob, but because making it is actually easy and homemade tastes one million times better than the mass-produced stuff. It’s why I was excited to try some of the best-rated pound cake recipes on the site!

Which Pound Cake Recipes Did I Test?

There are plenty of great pound cake recipes on the site, but I kept to recipes that had at least 100 reviews and a 4-star rating. I chose recipes free from toppings and flavors so that I could stay true to the original, buttery version.

One of the recipes uses buttermilk and another uses a box of yellow cake mix. I even tested a recipe that called for butter, but also cream cheese.  Another recipe used an entire pint of heavy whipping cream and another, sour cream. Here are the ones I put to the test:

• Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake by Nanci

• Butter Pound Cake by Diana Moore

• Sour Cream Pound Cake by LVJOANNE

• Buttermilk Pound Cake by Cathy

• No-Fail Pound Cake by Patsy

How I Judged the Recipes

I believe in fairness, so for all of the recipes I used the same brands. That means all of the butter was the same and so was everything else. I followed all of the instructions as written, and even though I read the reviews, I didn’t make any adjustments based on them. Flavor was the biggest criteria, but so was moisture level and the “crumb.” I was after a big butter flavor with subtle sweetness and a super tender crumb. Here’s what I discovered.

The Results

Best for People Who Like Cream Cheese: Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake

• The recipe: Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake, submitted by Nanci

• Average rating: 4.7

• Rave review: “This made for a wonderfully flavored, super moist, and delightfully delicate cake. Smooth as velvet!" —Lynda

I must admit, I’ve never added cream cheese to pound cake before, but I like the addition. The recipe begins like many of the others on this list, but instead of creaming just butter and sugar together, you cream the butter, sugar, and cream cheese. The eggs are added one at a time, then finally the flour and vanilla.

After baking for a little over an hour, the resulting cake came out beautiful. The exterior was golden-brown and the interior was soft and tender. It was moist and you could taste the cream cheese. This cake felt and tasted rich and decadent and capable of satisfying with even the thinnest slice. It was delicious, but definitely one of the denser cakes on the list.

Get the recipe: Easy Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Best for Topping: Butter Pound Cake

• The recipe: Butter Pound Cake, submitted by Diana Moore

• Average rating: 4.7

• Rave review: “Very, very good! Made exactly as the recipe stated. Served with mixed fruit and a dollop of whipped cream. Excellent recipe!" —MamaLitz
  

This recipe uses a whole pint of heavy whipping cream, which I found intriguing. I’ve used buttermilk with success, but never cream. The recipe is straight-forward and follows the usual protocol of creaming the butter with sugar, then adding the eggs, one at a time. The flour and cream are added next, each in small amounts, until everything is combined.

The resulting cake is buttery and soft, but like other reviewers note, lacks flavor. This is likely due to the absence of salt. The mild flavor makes the cake rather boring and bland, even though it looks and feels fabulous. Next time I’d try adding a bit of salt or serving with a citrus glaze.

Get the recipe: Butter Pound Cake

Best for Using Up That Buttermilk: Buttermilk Pound Cake

• The recipe: Buttermilk Pound Cake, submitted by Cathy

• Average rating: 4.6

• Rave review: “This is a great tasting cake. I followed the directions and the cake was soft and moist and very tasty! Can't wait to make it again!!" —Jocelyn
  

I’ve used buttermilk to make pound cake as well as other quick breads, muffins, and cakes and have always enjoyed the results. This pound cake is no exception. Again the method for making it is similar, but this time flour and buttermilk are added in batches to finish the batter.

This cake is incredibly moist with a fantastic crumb. The flavor is subtle, but perfectly balanced. The light tang and the mild lemon flavor help lighten up an often dense cake. This a delicious recipe that would be fantastic served as is or topped with berries.

Get the recipe: Buttermilk Pound Cake

Best for the Timid Baker: No-Fail Pound Cake

• The recipe: No-Fail Pound Cake, submitted by Patsy

• Average rating: 4.6

• Rave review: “I made the recipe exactly as stated. Best one that I have found so far, never fails me." —Shae LaFosse

I love when recipe titles make bold claims like this one! “No-Fail” seems like a bold statement, but it turned out to be true. This recipe uses both sour cream and a box of yellow cake mix. Smart choices that help add moisture and structure to this cake.

The cake was absolutely delicious—perfectly sweet and tender. And thanks to the sour cream, it had a delightfully light, tangy bite to it. As promised, the cake was easy to make and the results had me thinking this might be my new favorite way to make pound cake.

Get the recipe: No-Fail Pound Cake

Best Overall: Sour Cream Pound Cake

• The recipe: Sour Cream Pound Cake, submitted by LVJOANNE

• Average rating: 4.8

• Rave review: “This is a fabulous recipe. I was trying to duplicate the pound cake that my parents' neighbor gives them every Christmas—the perfect pound cake in my book—and this is it! —cassarugh

The winner of the bunch was also an easy one to make. Unlike other recipes, the dry ingredients included salt, baking soda, and ground mace or nutmeg. Once the butter and sugar were creamed and the eggs and vanilla were added, the dry ingredients were incorporated in batches with the sour cream.

After baking for about an hour and twenty minutes, it came out looking gorgeous, with a stunning golden exterior. The interior was tender and incredibly moist and I loved the sweetness, which was a perfect contrast to the tanginess from the sour cream. This pound cake felt light and was incredibly tender and soft. I don’t have anything negative to say about it—it was that good. If you’re looking for an awesome pound cake, I recommend you make this one!

Get the recipe: Sour Cream Pound Cake

Read the original article on All Recipes.