Miss Dot’s Pound Cake Recipe is a cream cheese pound cake that’s deliciously buttery, tender, and has a lovely crusty top! This splurge-worthy dessert is totally worth the effort!
MISS DOT’S POUND CAKE RECIPE
Amazingly, Miss Dot’s Pound Cake became an overnight sensation after she appears on the HGTV series Home Town. This is Miss Dot’s original pound cake recipe. I ever-so-slightly tweaked the recipe to make it even better. You may be thinking, ‘why did you tweak the recipe?’ Well, in case you’re new to Call Me PMc, I have tested and reviewed over 70 pound cake recipes. (You can get all the recipes here: Pound Cake Recipes Reviewed.) I’m pretty good at making pound cakes and I tested Miss Dot’s recipe and I made minor changes. The recipe that I tweaked is better according to my taste testers.
You can get the full, printable recipe below in the recipe card. This is Miss Dot’s Pound Cake as she wrote.
Here’s my version.
INGREDIENTS FOR THIS CRUSTY TOP POUND CAKE
First and foremost, I want to stress that this pound cake recipe does not have baking soda or baking powder in it. This is not an error. It rises from the eggs only.
Further, the full printable recipe with ingredient amounts and instructions is at the bottom of this post. You can save a tree and save the recipe to your personal and private recipe box right here on Call Me PMc. This way you’ll never misplace it as well as help the planet.
- All-purpose flour. Good quality all-purpose flour. You can use cake flour, but it’s unnecessary. This cake is divine with all-purpose flour.
- Sugar. Granulated white sugar.
- Eggs. Large eggs or the equivalent at room temperature.
- Butter. Real butter at room temperature. Margarine will not work. Salted or Unsalted butter will both work, it’s a personal preference for which you use.
- Cream cheese. Full fat, good quality cream cheese at room temperature. Do not use low-fat or fat-free cream cheese.
- Pure vanilla and almond extract. The combo of both extracts adds the best flavor.
- Salt. This is optional. However, when you add salt to sweet recipes it ‘helps certain molecules of the ingredients release their flavor easier.’
**You can change any ingredient you’d like to, but these are the exact ingredients I used and what I recommend to use to make Miss Dot’s Pound Cake.
METHOD FOR MAKING MISS DOT’S POUND CAKE RECIPE
The original recipe had these instructions. I explain in detail how to mix the ingredients in the full recipe card.
Beat the ingredients together well. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan. Place it into a cold oven. Bake at 300 degree for an hour and a half. Take it out carefully, and your pound cake should be complete!
WHAT IS THE SECRET TO A GOOD POUND CAKE?
A pound cake should be rich and buttery with a dense texture and a tender crumb. With my simple tips and tricks, you can bake rich, buttery, homemade pound cakes like a pro.
- All your refrigerated ingredients need to be at room temperature.
- Use name-brand ingredients. Store brands of sugar are often more finely ground than name brands, thus yielding more sugar per cup. This can cause the cake to fall. Store brands of butter may contain more liquid fat and/or water. And, store brands of flour may contain more hard wheat, making the cake heavy.
- Use real butter, the fat content in margarine can vary and can dramatically change the outcome of your recipe.
- Calibrate your oven. You can do everything else right, but if your oven is not cooking at the temperature it shows on the dial, your cake will not cook correctly. Please read this post I wrote on How to Calibrate your Oven.
- Measure accurately. Use the spoon & level method to measure flour.
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. The color will a pale yellow.
- Don’t overbeat once you add the eggs and flour.
- Make sure your pan is thoroughly greased. I recommend using either a solid vegetable shortening or butter, then follow up with a coating of flour or granulated sugar.
- Place the cake pan in the center of the oven, and keep the door closed until the minimum baking time has elapsed.
- Don’t rush baking a pound cake by increasing the oven temperature. Pound cake batter is very dense and takes time to bake.
- Hop over to this post, Bake the Perfect Pound cake, for even more details.
HOW DO I MAKE A MOIST POUND CAKE?
The most important thing when baking your pound cake is to make sure that you do NOT over-bake it.
Your pound cake will continue to cook for a few minutes after you remove it from the oven. To ensure a soft, tender cake, try to catch your cake slightly before it’s done. Look for the skewer to come out with a few moist crumbs and immediately remove it from the oven.
CAN I FREEZE CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE?
Pound cake is great for freezing. Wrap it up tightly with aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap and store it in the freezer for 4 to 6 months.
More classic recipes you’ll love
- Old-fashioned Butter Roll
- Old-fashioned Sugar Pie
- Rice Pudding
- Old Fashioned Caramel Pie
- Egg custard
- No Bake Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Apricot Nectar Cake
MISS DOT'S POUND CAKE RECIPE
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Save To Your Recipe BoxIngredients
- 1 and ½ cup butter unsalted, room temp, no substitutions
- 8 ounces full-fat cream cheese room temp
- 3 cups granulated white sugar
- 6 large eggs room temp
- 3 cups all-purpose flour sift first, then measured
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
- ½ teaspoon salt optional
Instructions
- Coat a 10-cup tube pan or bundt pan with solid vegetable shortening and sugar or Wilton cake release.
- Preheat oven to 300°F
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add sugar and beat until fluffy. The mixture will lighten in color slightly. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition just until the egg disappears into the batter. After all the eggs are added, stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add flour to the mixture and combine.
- Add vanilla and almond extracts and combine. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Stir the batter with your spatula to combine.
- Spoon into your prepared baking pan and level the top. Place in your preheated oven in the center of the center rack.
- *Bake at 300°F for 90 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean or with 'dry' crumbs. The cake will continue to cook for a few minutes after you remove it from the oven. Therefore, err on the cautious side of 'slightly' underbaked. [I bake my cake in a dark tube pan with it sitting on a cookie sheet. Both of these can affect cooking time. I recommend you test and make detailed notes on what you use and how long it takes the first time you make this cake.]
- Allow your cake to cool on the countertop on a wire rack for 30 minutes before inverting it on a serving tray. Serve warm or at room temperature.
- Cool completely before covering in an airtight container. Store in an air-tight container on the countertop for 3 to 4 days or in the refrigerator for 5 to 7 days. [I find it begins to dry out after 5 to 7 days. If it gets dry, it's still okay to eat. Spread butter on a slice and toast it in the oven or a pan on the stovetop until warmed through and lightly browned.]
Notes
Nutrition
linda Turner says
Could I add more flavorings in this cake?
Paula says
Yes, more of the same or add different ones.
Carleton G English says
I have tried and didn’t have the vanilla extract..dang.. but I used fresh lemon the cake lasted 2 days and request are already coming. We loved it and the lemon was my only stray.
Paula says
In my opinion, lemon is just as good ❤️😍
Annie says
Delicious!! One of my retirement goals was to learn to bake. Being a novice, I have to follow the recipe to a T. This pound cake is easy, looks beautiful and was raved about by my husband and by my friends at a luncheon I took it to. I was asked to make it again for another meeting this week. Thanks for such great directions.
Paula says
I’m so happy you enjoyed it.
Theresa Waxman says
Hi, I have made this cake twice in the passed week. Both times the cake fell alot. The second bake, I cut into it and the lower portion was uncooked. I preheated the oven, baked for 90 mins at 300⁰, but it was so light, I raised it to 325⁰ for an extra 6-7 minutes. What is the reason for the unbaked portion? Did I over beat the batter?
Paula says
My first inclination is your oven may be cooler than what it’s reading. So run through this and calibrate your oven> https://www.callmepmc.com/how-to-calibrate-your-oven/.
Next, what color is your bundt pan or tube pan? I used to always use a light-colored tube pan and my cakes would sink in the center (I still have 2 or 3 old pics on here when that was happening.) I got a dark pan (this one>https://amzn.to/3K15B6S) and they don’t sink in the center now.
I don’t think it’s over beating it… next, time try it at 325 for 85 or 90 minutes. Try testing it with a long skewer starting about 75 or 80 minutes if it’s getting brown on top. Test about 2 inches from the center hole. Please let me know how the next one turns out.
Tracy says
With all of the crunchiness on top, does this cake still work in a bundt pan when the cake gets inverted after cooling?
Paula says
It will as long as it’s large enough (12-cup), but that’s why I like a tube pan so that the crunchy top stays on top.
Janet Squire says
Any suggestion for high altitude baking?
I can just taste this!!!!! Yummy! I want to make it but don’t want to ruin it living in Colorado.
Paula says
No, I’m so sorry, I’ve never baked at high altitude.
Darlene Walker says
This is the best as long as it’s not over baked!!! I will keep trying to perfect.
Also, I love buttermilk. How much could I add and be ok with the integrity of the cake?
CarLi says
Hi
Can u use SALTED butter or both even (salted & unsalted evenly)
Paula says
You can use either or both
Cindy Burrell says
Oh my goodness! Look at those crunchy pieces on top. I’d like a cake of just those!
Ingrid Parker says
In step 1 you say to place on COLD oven at 300
In step 9 you say pre-heated!?
Which is correct???
Paula says
I’m sorry, I had her original directions in line 1 to refer back to. I have corrected that.
I bake it in a preheated oven for 90 minutes.
Also, I have tested baking pound cakes in a preheated versus a cold oven and I honestly can’t tell the difference in them. I think maybe a long time ago ovens were different and this became a thing, but I’ve tried different pound cake recipes 6 or 7 times now and can’t tell it makes a difference.