8 Store-Bought Pound Cakes, Ranked From Worst To Best - Tasting Table

"When I was in culinary school, one of the very first cakes my fellow chefs-in-training and I made was pound cake - and we made it over and over and over again. Why? It's a true classic, built on the fundamentals of the creaming method, and mastering it teaches you so much about proper cake-making technique. I never minded the repetition - pound cake is delicious, and I still think it's the bomb."

"One such item in the company's bakery lineup is the First Street Classic Pound Cake - a 16-ounce, unsliced loaf priced at $7.49, making it one of the higher-priced cakes on this list. At first bite, the imbalance in the recipe was obvious. My immediate reaction was that this had way too much flour, which gave it a dry, pasty mouthfeel. In fact, its texture was more bread-like than cake-like, closer to the worst store-bought white bread - light, flavorless, and oddly chalky."

Culinary training often involves repeated practice making pound cake to master the creaming method and core cake-making technique. Pound cake functions as a versatile base for plated desserts, bakery sales, and effortless dinner-party desserts paired with seasonal fruit and sauces. Store-bought pound cakes provide convenience but vary widely in quality and texture. The First Street Classic Pound Cake is a 16-ounce unsliced loaf priced at $7.49. Tasting revealed a pronounced recipe imbalance with excessive flour, producing a dry, pasty, and bread-like mouthfeel that tasted light, flavorless, and oddly chalky. Butter appears on the ingredient list.

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