I already shared one dessert recipe this week, but the beautiful strawberries at the grocery store have been calling to me! And Buttermilk Pound Cake is a great dessert to keep in mind if you’re looking for a last minute dessert idea for Mother’s Day.  It’s sweet, tender, and full of flavor.  Serve this cake with some sliced strawberries and whipped cream, and it’s the perfect spring dessert!  

If you’re also looking for a last minute Mother’s Day gift idea (including a gift idea for yourself!), I highly recommend Joanna Gaines new cookbook “Magnolia Table.”  I based this recipe off of a recipe in her book, and there are so many others I’m dying to try….like Mushroom Gruyere Quiche, Garlic Knots, Sweet Potato Fries, I could keep going!

I didn’t take many photos as I made this recipe because I wasn’t prepared for how amazing it would turn out.  But when I took my first bite, I knew I had to share it!

Cake Flour

I’m sure her recipe is amazing as printed, but I made a few quick changes based on my personal preferences.  To start with, I substituted cake flour for the all purpose flour in the recipe.  Cake flour gives cakes a nice, tight crumb and I really like that in a pound cake.  I’m obsessed with the lemon loaf at Starbucks and was looking to produce a similar texture in this cake.  I also added a little more baking soda for extra lift.  Lastly, I split the recipe in half and baked it in a loaf pan, instead of a large bundt pan.  But feel free to double the recipe and bake it in a bundt pan if you’d rather.

Extracts

This cake gets an extra dose of flavor from using 4 different baking extracts!  It uses vanilla, lemon, butter, and almond extracts.  See what I mean by it’s bursting with flavor!  Traditionally only vanilla and almond extracts are used in pound cakes, but I really liked the addition of lemon and butter in this cake.  If you’re not a big fan though, you could sub out the lemon for an extra teaspoon of vanilla and leave out the butter extract all together.  It’s going to be delicious either way!

Mother’s Day

And now a quick flashback to my first Mother’s Day ever.  My first baby was born a few weeks before Mother’s Day, and 5 weeks early!  I guess you could say she gave me a bonus Mother’s Day.  She was an emergency birth and I was caught completely off guard.  We were college students and only had one car, so my husband had to ride a borrowed bike to the hospital to meet me for her birth.  Thankfully she was healthy, albeit tiny, and we were able to bring her home a few days later.  Looking back at the photos, we were both just little babies!  She turned 20 years old a few days ago…

I know Mother’s Day can be an emotional day for lots of reasons, but I hope we’re all able to enjoy a few minutes of peace with a delicious slice of Buttermilk Pound Cake!

Buttermilk Pound Cake

1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract*
1 teaspoon butter extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Directions

With the rack positioned in the middle of the oven, preheat the oven to 325 F. Spray a standard loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray**.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat well in between each addition. Add the extracts and mix until smooth.

To this mixture add 1/2 cup flour, then 1/2 cup buttermilk, then 1/2 cup flour, the last 1/2 cup buttermilk, then the salt, soda, and remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Beat well in between each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly to the edges. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Depending on how quickly your oven bakes this could take anywhere between 55 minutes to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Just give it a quick peak towards the end of cooking to see how it’s doing.

Cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let cool completely. Store at room temperature, tightly sealed with plastic wrap. Happy Spring!

*If you’re not a big fan of lemon flavor, you can use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract instead of the 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon of lemon called for in this recipe.

**This recipe can be doubled and cooked in a bundt pan instead. Increase baking time as needed.