Granny’s Five-Flavor Pound Cake Recipe

February 27, 2024

Published Feb. 20, 2024

Granny’s Five-Flavor Pound Cake
Matt Taylor-Gross for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Golden with a fine crumb, this pound cake smells amazing while it’s baking and tastes just as intoxicating once sliced. It’s comforting with its buttery softness and complex with its blend of five extracts (vanilla, rum, coconut, lemon and almond). The celebrity chef Carla Hall got this recipe, among other beloved soul food dishes, from her maternal grandmother, Jessie Mae Price. This family dessert was served at every Christmas celebration in Tennessee and wrapped and shipped off to the grandchildren as well. It’s a keeping cake, the kind that tastes even better over time, and meant to be shared. Ms. Hall wanted to recreate the tenderness that her granny achieved through sifted cake flour without sending home cooks to the store for yet another ingredient, so she swapped in some cornstarch instead. If you don’t have that in your pantry, using only all-purpose flour works just fine too, as does any combination of extracts you can find or have on hand. —Genevieve Ko

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Ingredients

Yield:12 servings
  • Nonstick baking spray
  • cups/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
  • cups/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

  1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 10-cup Bundt or tube pan with nonstick baking spray.

  2. Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

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