Cold Oven Poundcake

I'm so excited about this poundcake! I'm really really thrilled! Look closely....it has a DOME on it! It rose! Hooray! (I get excited about the smallest of things). This cake is a combination of a few different recipes but I think the main difference is that I used the "cold oven" method of baking. I placed the cake batter into a cold oven - no preheating. After placing it in a cold oven, I turned the temp to 325 degrees and did not open the oven door until it was basically done. I had read about the cold oven method in Cooks Illustrated and also a few other blogs. It was a method of baking that I had never tried and the claim was that you'd get a nice rise in your poundcake. A nice dome on my poundcake has always eluded me...until now. And the crumb on this cake is so very tender and fine. It almost has the texture of a cake mix which is not what many folks think of when they think of poundcake. Almost like the texture of the frozen Sarah Lee Poundcake. I think it's awesome. Not heavy or dense. I also put a nice lemon glaze on top. Oh, as for the flavor of the actual cake, I put 3 different flavors in mine. I added vanilla extract, almond extract & some grated lemon zest. It was a wonderful combination of flavors but of course, you can change those flavors to suit your taste.

Yeah, I definitely recommend this perfect recipe. It would excellent with a nice berry sauce on top with a big dollop of whipped cream!


I wish it were daylight so I could have gotten a better photo. But notice how buttery it looks. It was still quite warm when I took this photo, but it was late and I wanted to go to bed. I love warm poundcake though and so did my boys. Mmmmm!

You can kind of see in this photo how the lemon glaze created kind of a slightly crunchy texture on top. It would have been wonderful without the glaze but I love the added flavor and texture and moistness.

This is now my GO TO pound cake recipe. But ya know what? I was so proud of this cake and my husband said "I like your old recipe a lot better". He is talking about the previous flat, dense and heavy poundcakes I have made. Like I said, this newest one was a lot lighter and cake mix like in texture. Not quite fluffy, but a much lighter crumb than my usual pound cakes. Once again, me and him disagree on what is a perfect pastry characteristic. Sigh.

Cold Oven Pound Cake

3 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
2 1/2 sticks butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs

Adjust oven rack to middle upper position.

Prepare pans.

( I used my mini nonstick loaf pans and sprayed only the bottom. I've read that spraying the sides of the pan causes the batter to not rise as high because there is no "grip" on the sides. I also put a small lining of parchment paper on the bottom to make sure there is no sticking.)

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl.

Whisk sour cream, milk and extracts & zest in a measuring cup.

With electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined.

Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of milk/sour cream mixture, starting with the flour mixture.

Mix on low until smooth, about 30 seconds.

Use rubber spatula to give batter final stir.

Pour batter into prepared pan/s and smooth top.

Place cake in cold oven.

Adjust oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake, without opening oven door, until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and cool on wire rack. Remove from pans about 10 minutes later. (I waited about 5 minutes since mini loaf pans cool a lot quicker).

While the cakes were still warm I glazed mine with a mixture of fresh lemon juice mixed with powdered sugar. I used a pastry brush and very generously glazed each loaf.