Granlady Margie’s overnight Pound Cake

Granlady Margie is my stepgrandmother. She is awesome. Through a variety of complicated life dramas that I won’t write about for decades or possibly never, I didn’t meet her until I was 30, but immediately felt like I knew her my whole life… not least because she had this poundcake waiting when I walked in the door to her home in Georgia. I’m sharing this with her permission. I asked for it and she had to just write it down on some note paper because she’s made it so often she knows it by heart, but I’ve juiced it up here with some specifics to make it accessible for novice bakers!

I follow the recipe exactly as she told it to me, with three minor changes— the greasing and flouring at the end, which she doesn’t do but which I’m too paranoid to skip, and the use of lemon and orange zest (her original recipe has lemon and orange extract but she is pleased with this substitution and plans to try it, she says). And since it’s COVID-19 times, cake flour was hard to come by. I had a cup on hand and used all-purpose for the rest. I’m calling it “overnight” pound cake because she directs it to cool all night, and therefore suggests making it at night to enjoy the next day.

The best way to enjoy this poundcake is by wrapping some of the pieces in plastic wrap, then foil, then delivering them to people you love. But if you eat the whole thing by yourself, no one is judging you. Just know that it is a very intense and rich cake.

8 ounces of cream cheese
3 sticks butter, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 teaspoons rum (I used Gosling’s Black Seal)
10-inch Bundt pan

1. Heat your oven to 325 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar. Make sure you’ve done your good research on creaming technique if you don’t know what it’s supposed to look like or how to do this step correctly. It matters! I used the paddle attachment on my KitchenAid for this (and the whole recipe) but you can use an electric handheld mixer.

3. Add the eggs slowly and let them incorporate until the mixture is smooth and yellow.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. Slowly mix in the flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Do not overbeat!! Mix until just incorporated and smooth and no dry flour remains, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Add the vanilla, rum, and zest, again mixing until just incorporated.

6. Grease and lightly flour your Bundt pan, tapping out excess flour. Use a rubber spatula to get all of the batter into the pan. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. At that point, do the toothpick test and bake for longer if needed. Mine was done at 1 hour and 30 minutes but your oven is a wild untamed beast, so just check it.

7. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Then, put a plate over it, and invert it so that the entire cake is sitting on the plate, with the Bundt pan still over it. Let it sit that way overnight and cool completely without disturbing it, and reveal your perfect cake in the morning, at which point you can have a slice with a cup of coffee.