Here's a "foolproof" mile high pound cake recipe! Real butter, while delicious, can cause issues like gumminess in recipes if it isn't combined correctly. By using butter flavored shortening instead, you can avoid these issues entirely! You can use cold eggs and sour cream straight from the fridge. It comes out deliciously dense and moist with a crunchy top.
2 cups butter flavored shortening
4 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon each of your favorite extracts: lemon, rum, coconut, or butter work great
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 large eggs
4 1/2 cups cake flour or White Lily All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 cups sour cream
Preheat oven to 300°F. Prepare Old Country Kitchenware square tube pan by fitting a parchment paper square between the two pieces and brushing with pan coat. Beat shortening and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth. Add extracts, baking powder, and salt beat until combined. With the mixer running, add each egg one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Add 2 cups of flour, beating until it just disappears. Beat in sour cream, then beat in the last 2 1/2 cups of flour. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and beat for another 15 seconds at medium speed. Pour batter into prepared tube pan and gently shake to settle. Place on middle rack of oven with a baking sheet on the rack below it. Bake 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool until the pan is cool enough to handle. To unmold, 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.
27 comments
Joe, I’m sure it would work to take any recipe on our site and swap out the butter for butter flavored shortening! all ingredients can be cold from the fridge when you’re not using butter
Have you tried using this recipe with any other flavors recipes on your site or would you try it.
Vickey, I haven’t tried it but it should work for both! In general, fat is fat and sugar is sugar, so you can substitute one for the other 1 to 1 by weight. I’m getting closer with the cookbook – it should be ready in the next month or two!
Would this substitution (butter-flavored shortening instead of butter) work in other recipes on this site? Also, does the shortening work in the recipes that have powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar? Thanks so much for sharing these recipes! I’m looking forward to getting your cookbook!
I baked this cake 11/14/2025. All I can say is this cake is the absolute truth! Using this recipe I finally got the mile high dome! And the cake was so moist, so soft and the crumb was excellent. So far, it’s my favorite recipe. Can’t go wrong with this one.