The Sara Lee pound cake can be the base for a strawberry shortcake, or it can go well with a cup of coffee. This was one of my first CopyKat recipes, so you can enjoy Sara Lee Pound Cake at home. You are going to enjoy every forkful of this delicious pound cake when you prepare this lemon pound cake.
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Making Sara Lee Pound Cake at home
The Sara Lee pound cake has long been a fixture in the frozen section of your grocery store, and now you can make it at home. This pound cake will go well with a cup of coffee. Or, it can be the base for a strawberry shortcake – you may want to butter the sliced pound cake and toast it to make a nice change.
The Sweet Beginnings
Sara Lee was only eight years old when Charlie Lubin, an enterprising baker, hit on the idea of naming his new cheesecakes after his daughter. He told his daughter that the product “had to be perfect” because he was naming it after her.
In 1956, Lubin’s company was purchased by Consolidated Foods, where Lubin remained as a senior executive for many years. The brand name of Sara Lee became so popular that in 1985 Consolidated Foods decided to call itself the Sara Lee Corporation.
Sara Lee has often appeared in television ads for the company’s bakery products. Read more about the history of Sara Lee.
Pound Cake Used to Weigh Four Pounds!
Pound cake originated in Europe in the first half of the 18th century, and all of the ingredients together weighed in at four pounds – a pound of each of its four ingredients – flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. This is why it was called pound cake.
As you can imagine, this early way of making pound cake produced a pretty big cake. In modern times, the recipe for pound cake has been modified and today’s pound cake is lighter and richer with a prominent butter flavor.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need:
- Butter you can use salted or unsalted butter
- Sugar
- Large eggs
- Cake flour is preferred, you can use all-purpose flour in a pinch
- Powdered milk
- Corn syrup
- Lemon juice
- Salt
- Vanilla
- Nutmeg
- Baking powder
- Mace (optional)
How to make this copycat Sara Lee Pound Cake recipe
This was one of my first CopyKat recipes. To make this pound cake, I recommend taking out cold ingredients from your refrigerator ahead of time to let them warm up – they combine best at room temperature.
- Cream butter and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time and mix well. be sure to use the mixer’s lowest setting to blend in the eggs.
- Add in flour, powdered milk, baking powder, and corn syrup. Beat each in well.
- Add the juice of half a lemon, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, and mace.
- Make sure everything is well blended, and pour cake batter into a greased loaf pan (prepare pan by spraying non-stick spay into the pan.)
- Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.
- Remove cake from the oven, and rest cake on a wire rack to cool.
Recipe Notes
It’s unnecessary to sift the flour, so putting this together will take just a couple of minutes. You can bake this in a standard-sized loaf pan which measures 9″ x 5″ x 2-1/2″. Learn more about cake pan sizes.
And, please use a preheated oven. When this pound cake comes out of the oven, it will be wonderfully warm and completely irresistible.
If you can resist enjoying a slice straight out of the oven, let the cake cool down to room temperature then let it get cold in your refrigerator. This is when the cake will go from a bit crumbly to much denser in texture just like Sara Lee. This pound cake will be one of your family’s favorite desserts.
I hope you enjoy this copycat recipe for Sara Lee Pound Cake.
How to store your buttery pound cake
Once this poundcake cools completely you will want to wrap it with plastic wrap. It will stay fresh for about 3 days. You can freeze this if you double wrap it with plastic wrap in your freezer for up to three months. I know you are going to enjoy this loaf of pound cake no matter how you decide to serve it.
How to serve pound cake
I know you are going to love the iconic Sara Lee flavor this old-fashioned pound cake has, here are a few ideas for you when it comes to serving this delicious cake. Best of all this recipe is so easy, you don’t need to be a regular baker to make a tasty dessert.
- Use cake slices for a simple strawberry shortcake
- Cut into small pieces and turn into a trifle
- Toast small pieces in butter of leftover pound cake and turn this into your base for strawberry shortcake
- Use for tiramisu
Variations on this recipe
Love pound cake consider adding a variety of extracts to change the base flavor of this cake. Enjoy many pound cake dreams when you start with this simple recipe. You can any of the following to the finished batter to change the flavor of the cake.
- a teaspoon of orange extract for an orange flavor
- a teaspoon of almond extract if you enjoy almond lfavor
- a teaspoon of almond extract and two tablespoons of poppy seeds will make you a delicious almond poppy seed pound cake.
- a teaspoon of cinnamon if you love cinnamon
Love cake? Check out these cake recipes you have to try
- Duncan Hines Sock It To Me Cake Recipe
- Angel Food Cake Mix with Pineapple
- Pistachio Flavored Cake with Pistachio Frosting
- Pistachio Bundt Cake From Scratch
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Italian Lemon Cream Cake
- Homemade Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Old Fashioned Chocolate Pudding Cake
- Layer Jello Cake
Top Baking Ingredient Recipes
Take a look at more of my easy cakes to bake and favorite copycat recipes.
Sara Lee Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 4 ounces unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup cake flour
- 2 tablespoons dry powdered milk
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon mace optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Allow butter to reach room temperature if you can try to use unsalted butter. Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add in flour, powdered milk, baking powder, and corn syrup. Beat each in well.
- Add the juice of half a lemon, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, and mace. Make sure everything is well blended, and pour into a prepared loaf pan 9" x 5" x 2 1/2.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes, checking for doneness by inserting a toothpick and seeing if it comes out clean. You almost want to underbake this.
greta
Is there something to replace powered milk with?
Moon dancer
Can I use AP flour instead of cake flour?
stephaniemanley
You can. The results won’t be quite the same.
kay
What can i replace powder milk with?
stephaniemanley
I don’t have a sub on this.
Mayra
What kind of powered milk did you use?
kay
What can i use in place of dry milk powder?
stephaniemanley
You could try to omit it.
doglover
Oops. I left out the baking powder – it is not included in the step by step directions, but is in the list of ingredients. the cake is still in the oven and looks great. Wish me luck!
Stephanie
I will fix adding the baking powder. I am sorry this recipe did not work out well for you.
jae
Some cake flour recipes don’t call for baking powder. My grandmother’s pound cake recipe doesn’t use it and it always come out perfectly!.
Bob
Made this cake and it turned out perfectly! In fact, after freezing it overnight, it was pretty close to Sara Lee’s in terms of density. Thanks Stephanie!
Bean"I"
Made this yesterday and it turned out fabulous. Fine crumb but a bit less dense than Sara Lee. Absolutely no complaints though. This recipe is a keeper. I do not suggest substitutions for any ingredients nor do I suggest omitting any. It’s a copy cat recipe so I personally couldn’t see tweaking it I wanted it to taste like Sara Lee’s. I ate it plain, with berries and whipped cream, toasted and buttered…It’s great.
alice whitten
Can someone help me find the recipe for the chocolate swirl in Sara Lee pound
cake Thank you
sofeelicious
It is very good but nothing like Sara Lee PC. Love the texture of the cake. Will reduce the sugar to half & probably just a touch of lemon. Overall, it’s a keeper !
meli
what can i use instead of the corn syrup? can i use maple syrup?
Beli
Can I use regular milk with this recipe?
Rselby12
Can this be used as a base for ice cream cake?
Girlie Chews
Ironically, I read the ingredients on the Sara Lee p.c. today at the supermarket, and then I stumbled on your page tonight with a recipe specific to their ingredients. I plan on making this p.c. in the next couple days. Will return to let you know how it turned out. Thanks so much.
Bobby
When I made mine it wasn’t as dense as I had hoped and was a little more of a light cake then it was a dense pound cake. It also had a lot of crumbs. Any ideas what might have cause this?
Drsan7
This is really good! I didn’t have any mace in the house, but turned out just like the one in the store, my only complaint was that I put a little too much lemon! But still good Loved it!
Kate
Hi
Can you explain me what is 2 T??? I don’t know it, because i live in poland.
Thank you in advance
Melanee
2 T = 2 tablespoons –> 1 tablespoon equals 3 tsp (teaspoons).
Arianna
2 T is 2 Tablespoons and 2 t is 2 teaspoons.
Diria collins
3 teaspoons= 1 tablspoon
Linda
Hello!
Your picture looks exactly like SAra Lee pound cake. Is this what I should be expecting? My youngest son will love this 🙂
Lucky Fortune
This was actually pretty good — and I don’t usually like pound cake! I made mine lower in fat by replacing half the butter with sour cream, and as far as I can tell it didn’t harm anything. I think perhaps the extra mace is unneeded, though maybe if one eats the cake with a topping of some kind it’s less extreme (I was eating it plain.)
Elisa
Is there a way to replace the cornsyrup!
I haven’t tried it, I would suggest using golden syrup, made from sugar instead of corn syrup. ~stephanie
Jen G
You can replace corn syrup with an equal volume of regular granulated sugar plus 1/3 of the volume in water. So, 1T corn syrup would be replaced by 1 T sugar plus 1 t water. Made this cake and it was good but not really a “copycat.”
kayla
i hope this recipe works nd that it is good