My Mini Pound Cake recipe has a hint of vanilla and lemon and bakes up soft and buttery. Forget store-bought cakes and give this homemade classic a try. This moist pound cake is so good all by itself or served with a little fruit topping and ice cream.

If you enjoy this mini cake then you might like to try my popular mini courgette cake and these other small quick bread recipes: small batch Libby’s pumpkin muffins & The BEST small batch cinnamon streusel muffins and a great old-fashioned apple cake recipe.

Small pound cake slices with half lemon and knife on parchment paper.

Main Ingredients Notes & Substitutions

Butter: Salted butter at room temperature works best; you should be able to press the butter and see an imprint. If you use unsalted butter, you need to add a little salt.
Sugar: Use white granulated sugar. Make sure that the butter and sugar are creamed until light and fluffy before adding the next ingredients.
Egg: The extra egg yolks help make the cake moist.
Vanilla extract: This really ups the flavor of the pound cake. Vanilla paste or fresh vanilla bean can be used with wonderful results.
Flour: Use regular all-purpose flour, or you can use cake flour, but don’t use self-rising flour.

Step-by-Step Mini Pound Cake

Step-by-step process of making a mini pound cake: mixing ingredients in a food processor, pouring batter into a pan, and the baked finished loaf in a rectangular pan. Step-by-step process of making a loaf cake: mixing ingredients in a food processor, pouring batter into a pan, and the baked finished loaf in a rectangular pan.

Recipe Notes and Cooking Tips

  • The most important tip for baking pound cake is to make sure all of the ingredients are at room temperature before you begin mixing. Room-temperature ingredients mix together more easily and produce a more consistent cake. Take them out of the fridge early to give them time to come to room temperature. In a pinch, you can microwave cold butter for 20-second intervals until it’s soft but not melted.
  • Always cream the sugar mixture until very light and fluffy for a smooth, velvety texture.
  • Reduce the speed of your mixer to a medium to low setting when adding flour mixtures and liquids to the batter.
  • Don’t over-mix the batter once the eggs have been added.
  • Never use margarine, you need the fat content of real butter for best results.
  • Rotate the pan once during baking for even baking.
  • You can also add a simple glaze by mixing powdered sugar and a little milk. For vanilla pound cake, add vanilla or lemon for flavoring.

Helpful Tools

  • If you need to bake several mini pound cake loaves for gifts, mini loaf pans, individual bundts, or little paper pans are perfect
  • A small 12-ounce baking dish can also be used, or a mini loaf pan.

Frequently Asked Question

Why is my pound cake so dense?

A dense crumb almost always means the butter and sugar weren’t creamed long enough, the eggs went in too cold, or the flour was over-mixed. Cream the butter + sugar 3–4 minutes until very pale and fluffy, add room-temperature eggs one at a time, and stop mixing as soon as the flour disappears. Accurate measuring (ideally by weight) also keeps the texture airy.

Why is this called a Pound Cake

The original pound cake recipe used one pound of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of eggs, and one pound of sugar. The thought was that this 1:1:1:1 conversion was a recipe that anyone could follow.

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mini pound cake on table with knife and lemon slices.

Mini Pound Cake

5 from 7 votes
A moist and delicious mini pound cake. The small size is perfect for one or two people.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Additional Time 10 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings: 4 slices
Calories: 343

Ingredients
  

Recipe Directions
 

  1. Preheat the oven to 350° F . Coat a mini loaf pan with cooking spray. or parchment paper 
  2. Add the butter and sugar into a small food processor. And pulse until smooth. Use a mini spatula to scrape the sides down. 
  3. Add the eggs, and vanilla, and mix until combined.
  4. Add the flour to the food processor and pulse until combined.
  5. Add the batter to the prepared loaf pan. Place the loaf pan on a small baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes or until the top is golden.
  6. Allow cooling for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pan.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 343kcalCarbohydrates: 52gProtein: 5gFat: 13gSodium: 195mgFiber: 1gSugar: 34g

Notes

  • The most important tip for baking pound cake is to make sure all of the ingredients are at room temperature before you begin mixing. Room temperature ingredients mix together more easily and produce a more consistent cake. Take them out of the fridge early to give them time to come to room temperature. In a pinch, you can microwave cold butter for 20-second intervals until it’s soft, but not melted.
  • Always cream the sugar mixture until very light and fluffy for a smooth velvety texture.
  • Reduce the speed of your mixer to a medium to low setting when adding flour mixtures and liquids to the batter.
  • Don’t over mix the batter once the eggs have been added.
  • Never use margarine, you need the fat content of real butter for best results.
  • Rotate the pan once during baking for even baking.
  • You can also add a simple glaze by mixing in powdered sugar and a little milk. Add in vanilla for vanilla pound cake or lemon for flavoring.
 

Tried this recipe?

Let us know how it was!

Serving Suggestions

  • Pound cake is great on its own or topped with fresh fruit and whipped creme. Also, using pound cake will take your strawberry shortcake to the next level!
  • Smear a little cream cheese or ice cream and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

How to Store Leftovers

Homemade pound cake is best stored in an airtight container at room temperature and will stay fresh for 2-3 days. Although you can refrigerate a pound cake it will affect the texture of the cake.

5 from 7 votes (5 ratings without comment)

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Recipe Rating




3 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    This was a really good pound cake for one or two! made this for my Mom and she loved it with fresh fruit and some whipped cream.

    1. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe! I have not doubled the recipe myself but yes, you can double everything including the eggs so it would be 2 eggs plus 2 yolks.