Mile High Pumpkin Pound Cake
October may be over, but so far as I’m concerned, it’s still pumpkin season over here. And so long as it’s still pumpkin season, why don’t we have a little chat about one of my favorite ways to use it: in a cake.
But not just any cake: a pound cake.
AND, not just any pound cake: a MILE HIGH pound cake.
Of course, a mile high pound cake is not a literal mile high cake. The name is meant to convey that it IS an enormous cake; 18 cups of batter to be exact.
For basis of comparison, a typical 9-inch round or square cake is made with about 8 cups of batter.
So, yeah. When we talk about mile high cakes, we’re talking about a LOT of cake.
Mile High cakes are hugely popular in the South, and generally speaking they’re ideal for large gatherings where there are a lot of mouths to feed. So far as a potluck dessert goes it’s pretty perfect. Because pound cake itself is so rich, There can be a lot of small slices cut from one of these babies and still have all the guests leaving feeling satisfied with their dessert.
I’d say that the only ‘catch’ to a mile high pound cake is that you MUST have a big enough cake bundt/tube pan to fit all of the batter. Do NOT try and use a standard size bundt or tube pan; you WILL end up with a mess.
A typical mile high cake pan can fit up to 18 cups of batter.
The Meta/FB algorithm really knows me well, because one day when I randomly logged on, a post popped up on my feed of a page with one of the most beautiful and appetizing pound cakes I had ever seen. Apart from the fact that the bake was clearly well done, I was also intrigued by its size and that it was square, as most pound cakes are round. I have no idea why, but the fact that it was square REALLY stood out to me.
I immediately clicked the link and it took to me a small business website called Old Country Kitchenware. To my delight, I found that the pound cake wasn’t just being advertised on Meta/FB for its recipe; it was also being advertised because of the square pan that it was baked in.
Guys, I don’t think I have ever made an online purchase so quick.
To top it off, within just two days of my placing the order, the pan was here at my door. I knew just from seeing and holding it in person the first time that it was a quality product and that I would get a lot of good cakes out of it. The dilemma was deciding what would be the inaugural recipe/bake for what I was already sure was my new favorite cake pan?
I decided to go with the ingredients/tastes of the season–and also, use up some leftover pumpkin puree I had sitting around from this Pumpkin Apple Butter I had made, and make what was actually my very first (an you believe that?!) Pumpkin Pound Cake.
One of the reasons I love making pound cakes so much is that they’re what I like to call Blank Canvas Recipes–meaning, that the base recipe is adaptable enough to where once you’re comfortable with it, you can experiment in adding a variety of flavors and mix-ins to it with pretty much endless possibilities. I’ve proven this with the amount of pound cake recipes you can find on this here blog, that as you can see, is still growing.
This cake was a cinch to put together. It was the longest I ever had to wait for a pound cake to bake-2 + hours!– but oh was it worth the wait and the labor. Not only was it delicious, there was plenty enough to go around and share. I was extremely pleased with it, and am still excited for all the cakes that have yet to be baked with my new favorite kitchen toy 🙂
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Mile High Pumpkin Pound Cake
Recipe Adapted from Old Country Kitchenware
Ingredients
For Cake
- 2 cups (4 sticks) butter, room temp.
- 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, room temp.
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin spice
- 4 cups sugar
- 8 large eggs, room temp.
- 4 ½ cups cake flour (I used White Lily All Purpose Flour)
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
For Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- a few tablespoons milk
Directions
Preheat oven to three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Generously grease and flour an 18 cup cake tube pan (I used this one), place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom and set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light, fluffy and creamy. (Be patient, this will take several minutes on medium speed)
Add cream cheese, pumpkin spice, ½ cup flour, salt, and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Be sure to regularly scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to ensure even mixing.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on low just until combined.
Add 2 cups of flour, beating until it just disappears. Add pumpkin, then beat in the remaining 2 cups of flour. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat for another 15 seconds.
Use a large spatula to spread batter evenly into greased/floured pan. Once filled. gently shake and tap the pan on the counter to deflate air bubbles. Place cake pan on a sheet pan you’ve lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 2 ½ to 2 ¾ hours, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out MOSTLY clean; it’s perfectly fine if it still has some moist crumbs sticking to it, you don’t want the cake to be dry! Remember, if the crumbs are ‘dry,’ the cake is most likely overbaked!! (Mine took about 2 hours and fifteen minutes, and I double checked it with a thermometer; pound cake is done at 195-200 Degrees Fahrenheit).
Allow to cool until the pan is cool enough to handle (this may take about 30-40 minutes, but don’t leave it too long, or it will stick). While waiting to turn it out, I used a butter/palette knife to gently run around the rim of the cake to ensure it would cool sticking to the pan.
To unmold (using this cake pan), place it over a metal can and push down to remove the outer piece. Once the tube is cool enough to touch for 4 seconds, lift or turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For Icing: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix well until reached desired consistency. Use a fork to drizzle icing over the cake. Allow to sit for about 20-30 minutes, until hardened.
Sharing at Fiesta Friday #561.
This is amazing!
Thank you! It tasted amazing too 😉
Can you cut ingredients in half for mile high pumpkin pound cake and make a regular size cake?
Hi Teresa–yes, certainly you can cut the ingredients in half and make a smaller cake. Be sure to adjust the baking time accordingly though! Cheers!