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Granny’s Five-Flavor Pound Cake
Published Feb. 20, 2024
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- Total Time
- 1 hour 40 minutes, plus cooling
- Prep Time
- 10 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- Nonstick baking spray
- 2½cups/330 grams all-purpose flour
- ½cup/60 grams cornstarch (or an additional ¼ cup/33 grams all-purpose flour)
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- 1teaspoon fine salt
- 1cup/228 grams unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, at room temperature
- 2½cups/500 grams granulated sugar
- 6large eggs, at room temperature
- 1cup/244 grams sour cream, at room temperature
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1teaspoon rum extract
- 1teaspoon coconut extract
- 1teaspoon lemon extract
- 1teaspoon almond extract
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 10-cup Bundt or tube pan with nonstick baking spray.
- Step 2
Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
- Step 3
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on medium, add the eggs one at a time, completely incorporating each egg before adding the next. Stop and scrape down the bowl.
- Step 4
With the mixer on low speed, add about a third of the flour. Once incorporated, add half of the sour cream, then half of the remaining flour. Beat in the rest of the sour cream and the remaining flour, then continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed, stopping occasionally to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the extracts one at a time, completely incorporating each before adding the next. Continue beating until the batter is shiny, about 4 minutes. Pour the batter into the cake pan.
- Step 5
Bake until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. It will smell really, really good.
- Step 6
Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unmold onto the rack. Let the cake cool completely. Well-wrapped, the cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I make a LOT of cakes and over the years I've adjusted the method to keep things simple. Yes to sifting the flour/cornstarch mix, yes to beating the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, but at that stage you can then add everything else and just beat the mixture for 3 minutes to get everything well combined and aerated. Adding one egg at a time etc risks curdling the batter which an all-at-once mix will not do. Saves time and the result is perfect.
As a general rule, for recipes requiring 1 teaspoon of rum extract, use 3 tablespoons of rum.
I made it yesterday. The only change was I switched the rum extract for an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract (no rum in my house and mint and anise did not sound like they would add yumminess). The cake came out great. Excellent rounded flavor, a rich taste. I would definitely recommend it.
I love how you can pitch in the extracts in your spice cabinet into this cake. A great dessert recipe to use up those specialty ingredients you’ve used once before in a now forgotten great-sounding-at-the-time recipe from the NYTimes.
I enjoyed making this cake. I was very curious to taste the final result with all five flavors. As in the description said, the cake is soft, fluffy and delicious. It tasted like vacation, so I understand why was Christmas cake for the Chef’s family. The only thing for me is the coconut flavor, is very strong. Next time I will use just 1/2 tsp and 1 tsp for the rest.
If one does have cake flour what is the correct weight to use? Same as all-purpose?
I have the same Q, as I actually have cake flour on hand.
“It will smell really, really good.” You’re not kidding! My home smelled really, really good for the rest of the day. And then we got to eat it (once it was cooled down). It was amazing, to say the least. I had some cake flour on hand (1 cup regular flour = 1-1/8 cup cake flour) and I had the most beautifully textured cake, smooth and the smallest crumb. Thank you NYT, Carla Hall and Genevieve Ko for sharing such a great recipe.
I just researched cake flour weight vs all purpose, and the weight is the same (128 grams), however if measuring the cake flour is 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of flour vs the 1 cup of all purpose flour.
Something I found out recently: be careful substituting different types of flours if you are WEIGHING. Cake flour weighs less than all purpose flour. So if you weigh out the same weight of cake flour to AP flour, you are going to get a greater VOLUME of flour. This could affect the final product.
I would use brandy instead. 3 T to a quarter cup or so.
Delicious, easy cake. Tender crumb. Served it with fresh strawberries and it was a huge hit. Made it in a Bundt pan that was a bit smaller than recommended, which I won’t do again, but this is a dessert that will go into my regular rotation.
Looked it up. Use 2 more tbsp of cake flour per cup of ap flour (and cornstarch together) required for the recipe.
What's your thought on adding more than 1t. each of the extracts? I made this cake yesterday - my first time making a cake from scratch! The texture was fabulous and the cake was moist. But...i couldn't taste any of the extract flavors. It tasted like "cake", no specific flavor. Is that what it's supposed to taste like?
We had this tonight, it was lovely! Didn’t have coconut extract so left it out and swapped 3T of rum for rum extract. We were also low on sour cream so had to use half Greek yogurt. Dusted it with powdered sugar before serving and it was a hit! Will probably make again and try out different extract combos!
I baked this cake right before an open house. We were selling our house right when the real estate market cooled off and were not having much success. This cake makes the house smell so delicious that we sold the house that very day.
I am not good at baking. However, this recipe has come out great every time I've made it and I enjoy the smell of the extracts. I make it as per the recipe, except with a hand mixer.
Followed directions exactly with no substitutions. Very delicious. My whole family enjoyed with fresh berries.
The very fine crumb is what I notice most about this cake - perhaps that's from the cornstarch. Also that it is lighter than most pound cakes. I used five flavorings: vanilla and almond extracts (1 tsp each); dark rum, orange blossom water, and rosewater (1 Tbs each), yet I wasn't able to taste any flavorings, except a bit of vanilla. Fairly bland on its own, but makes a good base for strawberries and whipped cream.
I followed this recipe to the letter and the cake could not come out of the bundt pan. What a waste of butter, eggs, etc.
Has anyone tried making this into loaf pans instead of the big Bundt pan? I would like to try it that way.. but would love to hear from the community first.
To me, the almond extract was overpowering in smell and taste. Next time, I will not use. As someone else mentioned, the cake came out beautiful, nice and high. When I came back, it appeared to have fallen along with my expectations. I cooked the cake til the skewer came out clean. However, after taking it out of the pan and letting it cool, I sliced it, and it looked perfect, not as if it had fallen. So a little odd. But everyone seemed to love it with people asking for the recipe.
Not owning a 10-cup bundt pan, I used 2, 5-cup glass tube ones, and baked them for 55 minutes at 163 C, pretty close to the estimate for one large cake. They rose fine, a skewer came out clean, all seemed well, but somehow the center seemed underbaked when I cut through one, and they sank. I had followed the recipe fairly closely, tinkered a bit with the flavorings (can't find coconut extract here), but was overall disappointed.
I thought this cake was bland -- even for a pound cake. The "five flavors" were timid, at best. There are many better pound cake recipes.
My family loved the cake but I wished I had trusted my instincts and used a 12 cup Bundt pan instead of a 10 cup, as the recipe says to do.
I made this exactly as written and it is perfection!
Just a great cake!
I baked this today for Easter dessert. Forgot to add the baking powder until after I poured the batter into the pan, so I mixed it in by hand. I was worried the texture might be off as a result, but it was fine. The cake took 80 minutes to bake through in my electric oven. I used all five extracts. I'm surprised by the bad reviews. The cake came out great. Standard pound cake texture with an extra twist from the five flavors. I think it'll be even better tomorrow, after the flavors meld.
Used 4 tsp of Rum instead of Rum extract - was perfect.
This is a terrible recipe. The proportions are off, and it does not bake properly. Probably the baking powder and butter. Need to check the measurements. And the very low temperature.
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