A great use of leftover egg yolks, Twelve Yolk Pound Cake, is golden and tender. This is a delicious basic cake recipe that’s not overly sweet. Serve this with a good vanilla ice cream and rich caramel sauce.
Twelve Yolk Pound Cake is versatile and delicious.
TWELVE YOLK POUND CAKE
When a reader asked me if I had a Twelve Yolk Pound Cake recipe, I became intrigued. She sad the twelve yolks made a pound cake and the twelve egg whites, in turn, are used for an Angel Food Cake.
Well, I had never heard of this but got busy searching through old cookbooks to see what I could find. The recipe below is an adapted version of a twelve-yolk cake that I found. As well, be sure to make my Angel Food Cake.
This is not what I truly call a ‘pound cake’ because it is more airy and fluffy than a traditional dense, small crumb, pound cake. In fact, I would classify this as a ‘sponge cake’ in texture.
However, Twelve Yolk Pound Cake is soft, rich with a buttery-like texture from all the yolks. Furthermore, because of the number of golden egg yolks, this cake has a lovely golden color.
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Make all my pound cakes, get the recipes> Pound Cake Reviews Series.
TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Coincidently, you can use your favorite flavoring in this cake. Good basic flavorings to try are vanilla, lemon, coconut, or almond.
- This cake is mixed together differently than most pound cakes. Therefore, you may want to read through the directions entirely before beginning the recipe.
- Twelve yolks make about one liquid cup measure. If you have medium or small eggs, you may want to measure them in a cup to assure you have the correct amount.
- You’ll want all the ingredients to be room temperature. (Except the water in this recipe.)
- Also, you’ll need to sift the flour before measuring. For baking, it’s very important to correctly measure all the ingredients. Flour is easily measured incorrectly. Please read this post on How to correctly Measure Flour.
- Serve this with ice cream and caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, or blueberry sauce.
Tools for Baking
- A larger bundt
- Or this tube pan
- Favorite spatulas
- For all my baking essentials, visit my Amazon Store.

Twelve Yolk Pound Cake
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Save To Your Recipe BoxIngredients
- 12 large egg yolks room temp
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 and Β½ teaspoon baking powder
- Β½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 cup cold water
Instructions
- Prepare a 10-inch (12 cup) tube pan or 12 cup bundt pan with non-stick spray.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. (I recommend you Calibrate your oven!)
- Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.
- In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks until very fluffy and thick.
- Reduce speed to low and add vanilla, lemon, and cold water.
- Gradually, but quickly add sifted flour mixture while beating on low, scrape bowl.
- Beat only long enough to blend, about 2 minutes.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until golden brown or when pick inserted in thickest portion of the cake comes out clean or with dry crumbs. (Watch closely if you haven't calibrated your oven. Baking pans can affect baking times as well. If it turns out dry you cooked it too long.)
- Store in an airtight container 4 days or on countertop or 1 week in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
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Barbie Hill says
So I am making an angel food cake and I had 12 expensive yolks left. I searched and came upon this recipe and followed it to the letter. It came out great! While itβs not a traditional butter pound cake, it rose beautifully and has great flavor and color. I paired it with a whipped cream and I think berries would be great! Thanks for the recipe!
calliope8 says
Good flavor but my goodness it was dry! I did wonder about a cake with no fat being dry but thought the yolks would maybe provide enough fat. I had a bunch of duck eggs (which have bigger richer yolks than chicken eggs) to use up. I also don’t understand using water when milk can be used. Water brings no flavor to the party. I will try this again with milk & vegetable oil as I still have a lot of duck eggs.
Paula says
If it was dry, you over-cooked it.
robin handler says
Can I substitute vanilla for the lemon abstract? I thought you suggested other flavors but wanted to check.
Thank you
Paula says
Yes, you can.
Nonni says
Added lemon zest & it was delicious. Agree with the other reviewers that itβs really a sponge cake. Baked it in a Bundt pan & dusted with confectionerβs sugar before serving-beautiful!
Horan Norma says
Easy recipe. I only had 10 yolks, but it turned out great and I would agree that the texture is more sponge cake than pound cake.
Lydia says
Can the flour be substituted for almond or coconut flour? If so, how much should I use?
Paula says
I’m not familiar with baking with those flours.
Soph says
This is my favorite cake now!!! My family finished it within 2 days!
Deb says
I love this recipe. I added lemon zest instead of the extract since I always have zest on hand.
Trisha L Varrelman says
Can I make this in a bread machine?
Paula says
I don’t have any experience using a bread machine. This is more like a sponge cake than pound cake if a bread machine mixes it too much you don’t want to use it.