Elvis Presley’s Favorite Pound Cake

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Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake- Home in the Finger LakesIt is my Mother’s Birthday, it also happens to be Elvis’s Birthday. Yes, my mother shares Elvis’s birthday. My mother likes Elvis….a little more than a lot. It could be classified as borderline obsessed. So the shared birthday suits her just fine.

But she is not alone in her undying love of Elvis, and every year TV and radio stations play tribute to his life and career by endlessly playing “Jail House Rock” & “In the Ghetto”. TMC airs an all day marathon that kicks off 6:00 AM with Stay Away, Joe (1968), and ends at 6:00 PM with It Happened At The World’s Fair (1963). So in a way my mother gets to spend her birthday with Elvis.

Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake- Home in the Finger LakesWhile I don’t share my mother’s fascination with Elvis, I do appreciate all the movies and songs being played on his birthday. The quasi national holiday guarantees I will never forget my mother’s birthday. I admit it, I am not good with dates. It doesn’t mean I don’t care, it just means to not expect your birthday card to actually come on your birthday.  Unless you share a birthday with a holiday or famous icon.

Because my mother’s birthday will forever be associated with Elvis’s birthday in my mind is there any better way to celebrate than with Elvis Presley’s Favorite Pound Cake? I think not.

So I went hunting down the famous recipe on the interwebs and found it at Saveur. The story behind  one of Elvis’s favorite sweets  was the pound cake made by his childhood friend Janelle McComb.  Every year at Christmas, she’d bake two loaves of Elvis Presley’s Favorite Pound Cake  and bring them to Graceland.  It is said Elvis could eat one all by himself.

Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake - Home in the Finger Lakes

The ingredients are simple: eggs (a lot of them), sugar (more than enough), butter (plenty) heavy cream (I hope you are not on a diet), cake flour (don’t have this? use my substitute), and vanilla.  But the end result is absolutely amazing, and it is no wonder the King adored this Pound Cake.

So Mom and Elvis, Happy Birthday!!

Have a hunk, a hunk pound cake 😉

 

Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake - Home in the Finger Lakes

Elvis Presley’s Favorite Pound Cake

Yield: 12 Servings
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes

The King was a big fan of rich decadent sweets, this classic buttery pound cake was one of his favorites.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for buttering pan
  • 3 cups sifted cake flour, not self-rising; sift before measuring plus additional for dusting
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 7 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

  1. Generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour.
  2. Sift together sifted flour (3 cups) and salt into a bowl. Repeat sifting into another bowl (flour will have been sifted 3 times total).
  3. Beat together butter (2 sticks) and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or 6 to 8 minutes with a handheld mixer. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add half of flour, then all of cream, then remaining flour, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down side of bowl, then beat at medium-high speed 5 minutes. Batter will become creamier and satiny.
  4. Spoon batter into pan and rap pan against work surface once or twice to eliminate air bubbles. Place pan in (cold) oven and turn oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out with a few crumbs adhering, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool cake in pan on a rack 30 minutes. Run a thin knife around inner and outer edges of cake, then invert rack over pan and invert cake onto rack to cool completely.
Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake - Home in the Finger Lakes

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18 Comments

  1. Hi ! This looks amazing!! Great photos too 🙂 did you start timing the baking time after you put the cake in the cold oven or did you wait until the oven hit 350 degrees and then started the time?

  2. I have made this cake several times. I skip the salt and just use salted butter. I also use all purpose flour. It turns out perfectly every time.

  3. My twenty year old daughter is crazy about Elvis, she’s an old soul. She is looking for something special to enter in our county fair. I think we just may have a winner here. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

  4. I made this before just because it had Elvis’s name and my Dad, RIP, loved Elvis. I grew up on Elvis..So very fitting and this pound cake is “The Bomb”! Love the test and texture!!!!

      1. I am glad to hear it turned out well for you! This is one of my favorite pound cake recipes!

    1. Thank you so much for stopping by Helen! I really enjoy “classic” recipes also, I have a stack of vintage church cookbooks I want to start trying recipes out of, just need to figure out how to add a few more hours to the day 🙂

  5. First of all I love your blog not just because we are both in upstate ny (Syracuse for me) but also because you make beautiful desserts like this!! So glad we were put in the same tribe and I found you!! Love this pound cake. So pinning to try!
    Ps: Happy Birthday to your mom!

  6. Hi! Oh your cake looks so good! I’ve never made a pound cake before, I will have to give this a try. I also loved your substitute for cake flour. I needed some for a recipe and couldn’t find it anywhere. I will definitely keep that in mind the next time I need it.
    Have a great day!