It 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.
While 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.
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
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
- Generously butter pan and dust with flour, knocking out excess flour.
- Sift together sifted flour (3 cups) and salt into a bowl. Repeat sifting into another bowl (flour will have been sifted 3 times total).
- 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.
- 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.
Christine Yang
Tuesday 15th of August 2017
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?
Fran
Wednesday 24th of May 2017
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.
Sandy
Thursday 28th of July 2016
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.
Brandee
Saturday 23rd of July 2016
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!!!!
Ronda davis
Sunday 13th of December 2015
Will this be able to be baked in a bundt pan?
Crystal
Monday 4th of July 2016
I just baked it in a bundt pan, everything seems great