This morning I’m sharing a story about why I’m posting the Classic Butter-Free Pound Cake Recipe today! On Tuesday, I received a message from a follower, Eleonora, who asked for a very specific recipe. Eleonora requested my recipe for Basic Pound Cake or at most the black and white version, with the addition of cocoa. She was asking for the basic pound cake dough that theoretically all or almost all food blogs should have because it is the “base” of many sweet recipes.
So I opened my blog Bea’s Recipes, clicked on the search lens, as I often tell you to do if you don’t immediately find the recipe you’re looking for, and typed the word PLUMCAKE and, surprise, it wasn’t there. The Soft Classic Butter-Free or Yogurt-Free Pound Cake, without fruit or without creams, basically the basic pound cake dough recipe wasn’t among those published. So I replied to Eleonora that she could prepare the Basic Pound Cake by eliminating the yogurt from the pound cake recipe. But I wasn’t satisfied with that answer; can I really have a recipe and cooking blog without ever having published the Classic Yogurt-Free Pound Cake or something similar?!?
That same evening, I took a bowl, electric beaters, a scale, a 25 cm pound cake pan (if you want to purchase the same pan I have, click here) and turned on the oven. I absolutely had to prepare this breakfast cake, take photos, and share with you my basic butter and yogurt-free pound cake recipe. Super soft as I like it, and yeah, I added some lemon, Grandma Sandra always adds it to her ring cakes, and it’s a bit like home fragrance, of my family. So here I am with the recipe, both for Eleonora and all of you, and thank you for being here with me every day to await the Recipe of the Day and share the day with me!
Another culinary curiosity, did you know that the literal translation of Plum Cake is Prune Cake? Discover everything about the Pound Cake by reading the Recipe Prune Cake Recipe!
Below, I also leave you other pound cake recipes that I have created over the years; you will find the Pound Cake Recipe Collection with 25 cm pan, the recipe to prevent jam from slipping to the bottom, the pound cake with robiola, highly recommended, the cake with rice flour and pistachio, and many others. Each link is clickable and will take you directly to the recipe you choose to read.
I also remind you that below the recipe, you will find the box with all the social profiles of the blog Bea’s Recipes to continue following me and not miss any new recipe. Every morning, in the group and on the Facebook fan page, I await you with Good Morning!!!
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 8 People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All Seasons
- Energy 258.62 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 38.77 (g) of which sugars 12.73 (g)
- Proteins 5.02 (g)
- Fat 10.45 (g) of which saturated 1.94 (g)of which unsaturated 8.04 (g)
- Fibers 0.65 (g)
- Sodium 68.24 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 75 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Classic Butter-Free Pound Cake Recipe
- 2 eggs (at room temperature)
- 2.5 oz sugar (you can use brown sugar if preferred)
- 1.75 cups all-purpose flour (previously sifted)
- 0.35 cups potato starch (or cornstarch if desired)
- 0.3 cups milk (at room temperature)
- 0.3 cups vegetable oil (in my case various seeds)
- 1 packet baking powder (in my case non-vanilla)
- to taste lemon zest (to your own taste)
- to taste lemon juice (about half a lemon, or a teaspoon of lemon extract)
- to taste brown sugar (for garnish)
- to taste sugar crystals (for garnish)
- 1 pinch salt (I always add it to my sweets)
Ingredient List Variations: if you are lactose intolerant, you can replace milk with water. If you’d like to use butter, you can replace vegetable oil with about 2.5 oz of melted butter at room temperature (about half an hour). If you don’t like the lemon fragrance, you can use vanilla extract, orange aroma, or orange juice. You can use almond essence or many other flavor extracts.
Tools for Soft Classic Pound Cake
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Scale
- 1 Electric Beater
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Parchment Paper
- 1 Oven
- 1 Pound Cake Pan
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Lemon Juicer
Steps for Super Soft Classic Butter-Free Pound Cake Recipe for Breakfast
Let’s start preparing the milk pound cake without yogurt by preheating the oven in static mode to 356°F. For Sweets Recipes with yeast, it’s crucial that the oven is already at the right and correct temperature, with the suitable mode for the baking we’re about to undertake. That said, let’s proceed.
Now, let’s gather all the ingredients we’ll use to prepare the classic pound cake without yogurt and butter and place them on the workbench. Weigh everything, sift the flours, possibly even together after weighing them individually.
In the bowl, with high edges, break the two eggs at room temperature, this is also a very important factor, namely the temperature, where specified, of the ingredients we’ll use for the recipe should not be underestimated for the successful outcome of our breakfast or snack cake.
Add the sugar and a pinch of salt, then activate the electric beaters. We should achieve a nice dense foam. Then, gradually add first the vegetable oil and then the milk, also at room temperature.
Now it’s time for the flavor extracts, like in my case, the grated lemon peel and the lemon juice. I had previously grated the peel and then cut the lemon in half and with the citrus juicer, I extracted its juice.
We now begin to add the flours since we’ve finished with the liquid ingredients. With the help of a spoon, gradually add the flours, previously sifted, into the bowl. Gently reduce the speed of the beaters between 2 and a maximum of 3 power. I had already added the packet of baking powder to the flours. We’re ready, our basic pound cake dough is ready.
Let’s take the pound cake pan, now we either butter it or grease it or lay a sheet of parchment paper on the bottom. Choose whichever you prefer; I find parchment paper works well. Pour all the mixture with the help of a spatula or a scraper, and level the surface of the lemon pound cake. Sprinkle with raw brown sugar and sugar crystals. You may also add chocolate chips if you wish, but since I used lemon, it didn’t seem appropriate.
Bake the cake in the center of the oven and let it cook for at least 25 minutes at 356°F in static mode. Before taking it out, always do the toothpick test. Keep in mind that with some ovens, it may take up to 30 minutes to bake. You’ll see it rise and form the classic pound cake hump, it will also crack because often they do, and it’s not a flaw, trust me. When it’s nice and golden, fluffy, and the necessary minutes of baking have passed, you’ll smell the aroma of this simple and easy cake as soon as you open the oven.
Allow the classic pound cake to cool completely before removing it from the pan; this will prevent it from breaking or cracking. Then place it on a plate or a cooling rack. If you wish, you can also dust it with powdered sugar, but we’re not huge fans, so often my cakes are without. All that’s left is to prepare a nice cappuccino or a hot tea and enjoy the soft lemon pound cake without butter, without yogurt and without anything else that could alter the fragrance, taste, and flavor!
I hope I’ve made Eleonora and many others happy who might have searched for this recipe on my blog without finding it. As I often say, the exchange of messages with you helps me grow, to have new ideas for new recipes, to help solve culinary doubts, experiment together. In short, one never stops studying and learning in the kitchen as in life.
I wish all of you bon appétit and I hope you enjoyed this recipe. If so, I remind you that below, you’ll find the social profiles to subscribe to and especially the comment and review box. This will help me and my blog grow and become known to an ever-increasing number of people. Thank you!!!
Storage and Variations of Classic Pound Cake
We can store the Basic Milk and Vegetable Oil Pound Cake in a cake holder (click here to purchase mine) after letting it cool at room temperature without covering it. We can enjoy it up to three or four days after preparation. Note that the pan is 25 cm, so it’s not huge; you’ll get about 25 slices of pound cake with this recipe, about 1 cm thick.
Variations of the Classic Pound Cake Recipe: as already mentioned during the recipe process, we can make various changes to this soft and fragrant lemon cake. Substitute butter for oil, replace milk with water. Brown sugar instead of white sugar. Change the extract or lemon juice with other flavors of your choice. Add chocolate chips or dust with powdered sugar. Add a jar of yogurt, eliminating the milk.
In short, like all Pound Cakes, the more the merrier, but for me, it was necessary to publish this recipe with the simplest ingredients and step-by-step since it wasn’t on my recipe blog.
