Southern Sweet Tea Pound Cake

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Soul Food

Diet: Vegetarian

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 1 20

Total Time: 1 30

Servings: slices

Calories: 345kcal

Author: Jazzmine Woodard

A delicious, buttery pound cake made in the traditional southern way and flavored with sweet tea

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Equipment

1 bundt pan or tube pan
1 stand mixer or hand mixer
1 mixing bowl
1 whisk
1 silicone spatula or kitchen spoon

Ingredients

For the Sweet Tea Cake

2 black tea bags
¾ cup hot water
1 pound butter softened to room temperature
1 ¾ cups sugar
6 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups flour sifted
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside.
Add tea bags to hot water and steep for five minutes then remove the bags.
2 black tea bags, ¾ cup hot water
Beat butter with mixer until it becomes smooth and a pale shade of yellow (about two minutes). Add sugar and cream together for three minutes. Then mix in eggs, one at a time, followed by ½ cup of the tea, and vanilla extract.
1 pound butter, 1 ¾ cups sugar, 6 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Meanwhile, whisk together flour and sea salt. Add half of this dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix until just combined then repeat with remaining flour mix. Give the batter a few stirs by hand to make sure no dry pockets remain.
4 cups flour, ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Transfer batter into prepared pan then bake on middle oven rack for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into multiple parts of the cake comes out clean.
Remove cake from oven and let it sit in pan for about 10 minutes then carefully invert it onto a plate to finish cooling to room temperature.
While cake cools, dissolve the brown sugar and remaining black tea. Use toothpick to poke multiple holes into top of cake then spoon glaze over top.
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Video

Notes

Preparation

Fluff or sift the flour well before measuring it out into the cake batter. Flour gets packed easily so you can end up with much more flour than you really need if you just scoop straight from the bag.

I recommend hand stirring the batter at the end to avoid over-mixing the batter, which will activate the gluten and result in a tough cake.

In my experience, it's best to bake the cake on the middle rack to ensure an even bake and place a sheet pan on the rack underneath to catch any batter drips.

You can bake the cake up to four days ahead of time with great results. Just be sure to follow the storage instructions below.

Storage

Pound cake can keep well at room temperature for a few days and beyond that, I recommend storing in the refrigerator to store for up to one week. Wrap it in plastic wrap whole or cut into pieces and place them in an airtight container to retain moisture as the fridge can dry cake out.

To freeze, cool the cake to room temperature then wrap in plastic wrap and again with aluminum foil before putting in the freezer. You can do this with a whole or half cake or with individual slices. Will keep for up to three months.

Nutrition