I know. That is a bold statement. Perfect? Um, yes. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it. Do I need a pound cake in my house? No. But I’ve had a sick baby for 3 days and I needed something to entertain ME so I decided to bake or “play in the kitchen” as I like to call it. I’m glad though, because this recipe is a winner. I wish I knew more gluten free people I could make it for.
I researched a LOT of pound cake recipes. And I have made my fair share of gluten filled ones over the years. I have decided that the keys to a good, or better yet, an excellent, pound cake are:
1) Texture: A pound cake shouldn’t have a really fluffy texture. It is supposed to be a little dense.
2) Flavoring choice: I prefer almond, but lemon is pretty fabulous too.
3) Crust: A pound cake should have a crunchy outer crust. This is so important because it pairs great with the moist cake.
So, that is what I set out to accomplish. I read recipes from the Pioneer Woman, almost every Food Network chef, random people from allrecipes.com, epicurious, and recipezaar, and of course, all my favorite gluten free bloggers. And I decided not to copy one specific recipe, but rather combine elements of the ones that sounded the best to me. And I was prepared for it to totally flop since I knew I was taking a risk in making up my own recipe. My goodness! I was not prepared for it to be FANTASTIC. Yay for success!
Now, I should tell you. . . pound cake is not meant to be healthy. So, don’t make it and try to cut out sugar and fat. Ok? Good. Glad we are clear about that. Butter, ladies and gentlemen, is important in this recipe. It makes it GOOD.
Ok, here we go.
PERFECT POUND CAKE (Gluten Free or Regular)
INGREDIENTS:
3 sticks of butter, softened but not melted
2 3/4 cups granulated white sugar
5 eggs
3 cups Rice Flour Blend* (2 parts rice flour, 2/3 part potato starch, 1/3 part tapioca flour)
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup milk (I used whole)
1 tsp almond extract (or you can use whatever flavoring you like: vanilla, lemon, orange…)
*If you are not making this gluten free, just use 3 cups of all purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum.
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a tube or bundt pan.
With a mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl and add to mixer alternately with milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour. Mix in almond extract (or your choice). Pour into prepared tube pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Mine baked for a hour and ten minutes and was perfect. Occasionally peek at the cake though. If they top starts to get really brown, you will need to lay a piece of foil loosely over it so that it can keep cooking internally without burning the top.
When it is done, remove it from the oven and let it sit in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting it onto a plate. If you do it sooner, your cake might fall slightly.
Enjoy it just plain, drizzled with chocolate sauce, or with strawberries and fresh whipped cream. Mmmmm….
The Happy Tummy: A collection of recipes, pictures, and helpful cooking tips 
Um I need to experience this cake with strawberries and whipped cream … surely there are leftovers over there …
Wow that looks so great! I’ve been thinking about
pound cake too lately, and this looks like the one
I want to try out. Thanks for the recipe…and I’m
looking forward to strawberries with it as well.
Kathy, you will LOVE it. I can’t wait to make it again and try doing it with lemon. Going to add lemon zest and the juice of some lemons with a lemon glaze at the end. Mmmmm..
Let me know how it turns out for you.
And I have enjoyed looking at your site. very helpful info and I plan to try your stuffed pepper recipe soon.
Pingback: Lemon Pound Cake (Gluten Free) « The Happy Tummy: A collection of recipes, pictures, and helpful cooking tips
Thanks- a newer gluten free person and I always loved baking- now I need to learn – and I have been thinking of a pound cake- this looks wonderful- off to the gluten free store to purchase my ingredients
Hope you enjoy it debby! please share your results 🙂
Pingback: Gluten Free Pound Cake « Healthy Obsessions
Hey…questions. What kind of rice flour did you use? Sweet, brown or just plain old rice flour? And secondly, did you use regular salted butter or the unsalted kind? 🙂 I need to make this in order to make GF English Trifle at Christmas!!
Carrie, this will be wonderful in a trifle! mmm. I used regular white rice flour in the flour blend. You can use either type of butter. If you use salted, just omit the 1/2 tsp of salt that the recipe calls for. Hope you enjoy it!
Not enough detail on the process of mixing the batter. I have read on other gluten free websites that one needs to mix the batter for 2-5 minutes to get the right consistency and height in the final product.
In flour batters the opposite is true. One is supposed to stir in minimally the flour and liquid alternately.
Please clarify in more detail the proper process for mixing a non flour batter
so that we can achieve the same beautiful results that you have.
Thank you.
Susan,
My experience has been that bread recipes need that 3-5 min mixing time but that cake batters are different, and just need to be mixed until a smooth batter is achieved. I usually just dump the flour and liquid in and mix it for about a minute or two and when it is nice and smooth and well incorporated, I stop. Hope that helps. This cake is very easy to make. I have never timed the mixing and always achieved great results.
I made this recipe with 1 2/3 cups white rice flour, 1/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup tapioca and 1/2 cup potato starch as I was running out of a couple of the flours. Still turned out beautifully with a nice rise, albeit sweet for my tastes. I will plan on trying this with less sugar in the future.
Would this recipe work for muffins!?
and why do you have to serve this only to GF folks? if more people ate GF (and didn’t know it until later) maybe more people would start cooking GF and then find out why they’ve been sick all along..
everyone likes a good cake, despite the ingredients!! 😀
I am sure you could make it into muffins, Julia. Just grease the pan really well and adjust the cooking time since it will obviously not take nearly long to bake muffins.
Meran ni Cuill, you certainly don’t have to just serve it to GF ppl. I serve GF things to ppl all the time who don’t have any intolerances or gluten issues. It is generally more expensive to make GF stuff, so sometimes that keeps me from exclusively cooking GF for people who don’t need it.
Perfect is the right word to describe it! I made this for Easter and it was a hit! The only adaptations I made were 2 sticks butter + 8tb veg shortening cause I had no more butter. We made our own rice flower with basmati rice, again cause it’s all we had. Also used 3drops of food grade lemon eo in place of the extract. Turned out great! Also Didn’t use the 3/4 additional sugar and it was perfectly sweet. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
What about just using an all-purpose gluten free flour in this recipe?
Can I use organic sugar (evaporated cane juice) instead of the white sugar?
I just made this yesterday and am shocked at how good this is! Wow! We are recently GF and I’m hit or miss on good recipes. I served it to non-GF people and it was a hit! Served it with fresh strawberries and whipping cream. So good! Thank you!
thanks for the feedback! so glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
My grandson has celiac disease and is lactose intolerant – I made the cake using vegan spread and lactose free milk and it is delicious.
I made this yesterday, and I echo the other comments about how wonderful it was! After buttering the pan, I dusted it with corn flour (not corn starch or corn meal) which gave it a lovely crust. I subbed almond milk, which worked great. I made the basic cake recipe so that it could be used with a variety of toppers. Last night, I made a lemon syrup from one part white sugar to one part lemon juice (heated till the sugar is dissolved), poked holes in a slice of cake with a fork, and ladled the syrup over it for that yummy lemon pound cake experience. We used whipped cream instead of a powdered sugar glaze on top of that, as a glaze just seemed like it would be sugar overkill. My 11 year old is GF and he was thrilled to have something so fabulous!
This recipe is delicious. This was my second attempt in making a gluten free pound cake, and now my favorite!!! Thank you for posting this recipe.
Hmmm… would you possibly have the total weight of the three cups of flour you used? And when you say ‘parts’ of flour.. is it save to assume that it means by weight and not by cups. Thanks in advance.
I made this and found it to be very good. I had 2 problems and hope someone can help. I waited the 10 min before taking out of the pan and it still fell while in the pan. Also the middle is gummy not light and fluffy like non GF . Any thoughts?
Glenda, Not sure why you had those issues. You may need to bake it longer… if the top starts getting too dark just lay a piece of foil over it. Mine is never gummy. Did you use the specified flours? I have most recently been changing my flours up a bit and using a combination of rice flour and corn starch (they are easy to buy here where i live as compared to other flours i have to order online). Great results. So for this recipe you can use 2 cups white or brown rice flour and 1 cup of corn starch totaling 3 cups of “flour”.
Rebekah, I used the GF flour so I am going to go today and get the specified flours and try again. Thanks for your feedback. Even with my errors right out of the oven it was a perfect taste. My husband thought it was perfect to the last bite. This is truly a great recipe.
I meant the King Arthur all purpose flour but it is a combination of your flours. I did add sour cream and found it difficult to get 2/3 tsp baking powder ( since I do not even have a 1/3 tsp measurement). I also may have mixed too long since I read on some sites to add some ingredients one at a time etc. So since I enjoy baking I am trying it all again.
Pingback: Ciasto ucierane bezglutenowe – Smacznie Mi