Southern Pecan Buttermilk Pound Cake is a traditional Southern pound cake with added flavor from pecans. Pound cakes are best know for their dense texture.
I love all things pound cake and this Southern Pecan Buttermilk Pound Cake is no exception. I wish I could recall the first time I tasted a pound cake. I wonder if I fell in love with it right away. We lived in the same town as my grandparents when I was born. Knowing how Granny loved to feed people, especially babies, and especially if those babies were her grandbabies, there’s no telling how young I was before she sneaked me my first bite. It’s pretty safe to assume it was before I had teeth. After all, plain pound cakes are soft and easy to swallow.
She’d rationalize that nobody every got hurt from a bite of pound cake. So, the first notion she got that I should experience this wonderful thing called pound cake, you can bet your bottom dollar, I experienced it at her doings.
After my Granny’s baking years were over, you’d still find a pound cake in her kitchen with extreme regularity. She knew plenty of folks who still baked and she’d either give them the ingredients to make her one or pay them to buy all the ingredients they needed. After all, one can’t be expected to go too long between good pound cakes.
Pound cakes are my favorite type of cake. They might even be my overall favorite dessert. It’s entirely possible they could even be my overall favorite thing to eat.
Period.
Pound cakes have a texture like no other type of cake. They’re dense but moist as all get-out. After all, they have a pound of butter in them. There’s not much chance of a dry pound cake.
Well, I suppose if you fell asleep while baking them and left them in the oven for half a day, they might be a little on the dry side. So, don’t do that.
The other quality about pound cakes that makes them even more endearing is that they are the best travelers in the world. Pack up slices of pound cake to take on road trips or picnics. After I cut this pound cake, I quickly packaged it up to send to my kids and grandkids in New England. It’s not a good idea for me to me left alone in my kitchen staring down a pound cake. After all, I’ve been eating pound cake since before I had teeth.
Y’all come see us!
Southern Pecan Buttermilk Pound Cake
Make sure butter and eggs are room temperature. The batter will whip up better and produce the desired silky yet dense texture. Pound cake flavor improves with age. Cook them a day or two ahead of when you want to serve them.
yield: one tube pan
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
4 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature (1 pound or 2 cups)
3 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
4 cups all-purpose soft winter wheat flour, sifted and divided (I use White Lily)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans, divided
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon turbinado (raw) sugar
Cream the heck out of the room temperature butter and sugar using a stand mixer. Scrap down sides occasionally. Cream until smooth. It will take at least five minutes.
Add room temperature eggs, one at a time. Mix only until the yolks disappear.
Mix in 3 3/4 cups sifted flour and all the buttermilk, alternating, starting and ending with flour.
Stir in vanilla and almond extracts.
In a small bowl, add remaining 1/4 cup flour to 1 cup chopped pecans. Stir until pecans are coated then stir pecans into batter.
Pour batter into greased and floured tube pan.
In a small bowl, toss remaining 1/4 cup pecans with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour. Add pecan mixture on top of pound cake batter. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes.
Carefully remove cake from tube pan and place on a wire cooling rack. Completely cool before cutting.
Pounds cake are best if they cure for a day or two before eating, if you can stand it that long.
Southern Pecan Buttermilk Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 4 sticks of unsalted butter room temperature (1 pound or 2 cups)
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 6 eggs room temperature
- 4 cups all- purpose soft winter wheat flour sifted and divided (I use White Lily)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/4 cups chopped pecans divided
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon turbinado raw sugar
Instructions
- Cream the heck out of the room temperature butter and sugar using a stand mixer. Scrap down sides occasionally. Cream until smooth. It will take at least five minutes.
- Add room temperature eggs, one at a time. Mix only until the yolks disappear.
- Mix in 3 3/4 cups sifted flour and all the buttermilk, alternating, starting and ending with flour.
- Stir in vanilla and almond extracts.
- In a small bowl, add remaining 1/4 cup flour to 1 cup chopped pecans. Stir until pecans are coated then stir pecans into batter.
- Pour batter into greased and floured tube pan.
- In a small bowl, toss remaining 1/4 cup pecans with 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour. Add pecan mixture on top of pound cake batter. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes.
- Carefully remove cake from tube pan and place on a wire cooling rack. Completely cool before cutting.
- Pounds cake are best if they cure for a day or two before eating, if you can stand it that long.
Alda says
I made this cake a couple months ago its so delicious. Everyone loved it
Jackie Garvin says
Alda,
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know!
Travis says
I made this pound cake yesterday. It turned out to be a disaster. I followed the recipe exactly as you said. However, after the required cooking time and cooling time the top was getting too done and hard so I took it out of the oven. It was not done inside and I had to throw away after all the time making and baking. What do you think I did wrong? I want to try again.
Jackie Garvin says
Travis,
How disappointing! Any time you’re baking and the top is getting too brown before the insides are done, cover the top with foil to keep it from continuing to brown while the insides cook. Secondly, I’d suggest you test the temp of your oven. It sounds like it might be cooking too hot. I wish you better luck on your second try