Strawberry Pound Cake

This Fresh Strawberry Pound Cake is sweet, dense and has the spectacular aroma of strawberry jam. Born out of desperation, there was no dessert in the house except some dredges of white chocolate ice cream.

With fragrant strawberries in the produce drawer and plenty of eggs and butter in the fridge, a lovely strawberry cake was born.

Fresh Strawberry Pound Cake

Only a few days before Easter and Bill was into the Oreos after dinner. I wanted to whip up an easy dessert, but knowing I’d soon be cooking up a big holiday meal for the family, I had to scale back.

I turned to a classic pound cake formula from Cook’s Illustrated and crossed my fingers that adding chopped strawberries would not mess up the baking chemistry. I did leave out the water figuring the strawberries would add some extra moisture. This recipe makes one generous strawberry loaf cake, which was just the size I needed! And, whew, it baked up perfectly.

Why Is It Called a Pound Cake?

Before I give you any tips, it’s important that you know where this dessert got its name. The first pound cakes were made with a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, a pound of butter and a pound of eggs. Now there are all sorts of varieties with extra yolks, cream cheese or cream added, plus a variety of flavorings and add-ins.

Tips for Making a Classic Pound Cake Loaf

• As with most of my cake recipes, you must start with room temperature butter and eggs. They will incorporate more easily and create a silkier batter.
• This strawberry pound cake recipe does not alternate adding wet and dry ingredients, but the resulting texture was perfect. The  chopped strawberries were folded in after adding the wet ingredients to the batter.

• I added 1 1/2 cups of beautiful ripe red strawberries that I chopped into about 1/4-inch pieces. I think this batter could take up to 2 cups of chopped berries, but I haven’t tested that out yet.
• Almond extract pairs beautifully with strawberries so I added 1/4 teaspoon. It’s potent so tread carefully with your amounts. 1 teaspoon of vanilla rounded out the flavor palate.

The Loaf Pan

• Don’t overfill your loaf pan. It should have a 7 cup capacity. If your pan is smaller, you can make a few cupcakes using ramekins for the excess batter.
• I smoothed the top of the batter with an offset spatula. There was some space between the top of the batter and the top of the loaf pan. If it’s filled to the brim, there’s apt to be some overflow onto the bottom of the oven.

Alternatives

• PRO-Tip: Note that you can double this strawberry pound cake recipe and bake in a 14 cup capacity Bundt pan. The baking time is the same, but make sure to use a toothpick inserted in a few spots to ensure doneness.
• If you want to try another flavor, omit the strawberries and add other ingredients. If you use blueberries instead of strawberries, the zest of one orange or the zest of two lemons, you’ll need to add back in the 1 1/2 teaspoons of water I omitted.

More Delicious Pound Cake Recipes:

• Coconut Cream Cheese Pound Cake from Call me McP
• Key Lime Pound Cake
• Glazed Lemon Pound Cake
• Streusel Coffeecake Pound Cake
• German Chocolate Pound Cake
• Sour Cream Pound Cake
• Vanilla Pound Cake
• Best Pound Cake
• Peach Pound Cake
• Plus loads of terrific Cake Recipes

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The Recipe:

Strawberry Pound Cake

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes

Yield 10 servings

A simple pound cake loaf full of chopped, fragrant strawberries.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 3 egg yolks, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups diced strawberries (about 1/4-inch cubes)
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 1/2-inch loaf pan, then line with two strips of parchment paper, perpendicular to each other to cover the inside surface of the pan. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, beat the butter for a few seconds until smooth, then on medium high speed, slowly pour in sugar and beat until very light in color and fluffy. This could take up to 5 minutes. Scrape the bottom of the bowl as needed.

In a large Pyrex measuring cup with a spout, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and almond extract. With mixer on, drizzle the egg mixture in slowly, and mix until well combined, scraping the bottom of the bowl as needed. Mix in the salt.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the strawberries.

Put 1/2 cup of the flour into a wire sieve or sifter and sift over the batter, then fold in carefully with a spatula. Repeat with another 1/2 cup, then the final 1/2 cup of flour.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top of the batter.

Bake for 70-90 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a few spots in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove to wire rack and cool for about 10 minutes. Using parchment to remove, lift the cake out of the pan and place on the rack to finish cooling.

Notes

The inspiration for this cake was a Master Recipe for Classic Pound Cake in The Best Recipe, a cookbook from the editors of Cook's Illustrated.

This cake may be doubled and baked in a large Bundt pan. Baking time should be similar to the loaf cake.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

10

Serving Size:

1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 387Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 160mgSodium: 223mgCarbohydrates: 45gFiber: 1gSugar: 28gProtein: 5g

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