Name: Cold Oven Pound Cake
Yield: Serves 12 to 16
Ingredients: 3½ cups (438 g) unbleached all-purpose flour; 1 tsp. (4 g) baking powder, preferably aluminum-free; 1 tsp. fine sea salt; 1 ½ cups (355 ml) whole milk; 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract; 3 sticks (340 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar; 6 large (300 g) eggs, at room temperature; Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)

Cold Oven Poundcake with powdered sugar being sliced and served.

Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich

Recipes for pound cakes started in a cold oven first appeared in advertising campaigns designed to entice homemakers into replacing their wood-fired ovens with the gas stoves that were being introduced to the American market in the early twentieth century. (Imagine having to stoke a fire just to bake a cake and wait for the temperature to be just right! It’s no wonder Southern bakers had baking prowess.) The thought of a cooler kitchen in the hot summers was appealing to bakers. You simply mixed the batter and placed the cake pan in a cold oven, then turned the oven on; pound cakes are so dense, they don’t need the usual initial blast of high heat.

This cake bakes slowly as the temperature of the oven rises, which allows more time for the leavening agents to lift the cake. It has a fine, delicate crumb and develops a golden crust that is unlike that of any other cake.

Editor's Note: This recipe makes a large Bundt cake; pan capacity will vary depending on the shape. We recommend this Bundt pan.