It’s tough to top a perfectly crafted pound cake when you need a simple but delicious little treat.
The trouble with pound cake, though, is that it never keeps as long as you’d hope. It dries pretty quickly – and when it does it becomes a lot less palatable (without some extra fixings, and even then it’s only halfway decent).
Thankfully, though, there’s a right way to store pound cake that guarantees you end up with a delicious, moist, sweet and special dessert a whole lot longer than you would have if you just left it out on the counter or tucked away in the refrigerator.
We show you how in just a moment!
How to Store Pound Cake
Learning how to store your pound cake is a big piece of the puzzle, but it isn’t going to take all that much extra effort – and it’s not going to require any fancy “extras” in your kitchen or your pantry.
By the time you’re done with the details below you’ll know exactly how to keep your favorite pound cake soft and moist for days longer than you would have been able to before.
Let’s jump in!
Airtight Storage is a Big Piece of the Puzzle
The first major thing you need to do when storing your pound cake properly is make sure that it is in as airtight a container as possible.
Straight out of the gate (right after you are done slicing off chunks of pound cake to enjoy, even) you want to make sure that you are wrapping your pound cake in a bit of plastic wrap.
This will act as the first barrier, locking in that moisture and making sure that the outside air doesn’t dry out your pound cake any faster than absolutely necessary.
After that, though, it’s not a bad idea to “double up” on airtight containers.
Slide that wrapped up pound cake into an appropriately sized container with a tight fitting lid (even better if it has a mechanical snap to really keep air out) and you’ll really be able to protect the freshness of this dessert.
Keep Your Pound Cake at Room Temp
Secondly, you want to make sure that you keep your pound cake out of the refrigerator.
We are almost conditioned to think about refrigerator as the perfect place to keep things a little longer than they would sitting out at room temperature, but you have to break that habit when you’re talking about pound cake.
The second your pound cake enters the fridge it’s going to be in a dehydrating environment. Every moment is going to suck a little more moisture and a little more softness out of that pound cake, and it’s not going to be very long until you have a brick on your hands.
Even worse, all the other things in your refrigerator are going to change the flavors of your pound cake, too. The end result is a pound cake that would have been really sweet and really indulgent, but now it’s got a little bit of “funk” from spaghetti sauce, soups and stews, and leftovers mixed in, too.
No, you’ll want to make sure that your pound cake lives out on the countertop at room temperature if you want to keep it as fresh as possible for as long as possible.
You’ll be able to get at least four or five days of perfect pound cake as long as you keep it wrapped in plastic and in an airtight container.
Try Not to Freeze Your Pound Cake for Too Long
As far as freezing pound cake goes, there are some people that absolutely swear by this approach and others that aren’t so crazy about it.
If you are going to freeze your pound cake you’ll first want to make sure that it has cooled completely to at least room temperature. That means letting the pound cake sit out for an hour (or even two) before you stick it in the freezer.
Place your pound cake in the freezer while still warm and you’ll trap a lot of excess moisture in it. That sounds good at first – you want a moist pound cake – but not when you’re talking about freezing it solid.
All that extra moisture will freeze up, expand, and burst the structure of your pound cake. You might not notice it while it is frozen, but you’ll definitely notice when you thaw your pound cake out.
You can get six months of freezing out of this dessert when you freeze it solid before it really starts to degrade. Any longer than that, though, and the flavors will be off as well as the texture.
How to Spot Pound Cake That’s Gone Bad
A big part of knowing how to properly store your pound cake is knowing when it’s passed and when you need to bake a fresh one.
Luckily, all you really need to do is look at your pound cake – and maybe squeeze it – to know if it is still good to go or belongs in the garbage.
Any sign of mold – even just a little bit – means the entire cake needs to be pitched in the bin. Cake that looks, feels, or smells “off” probably shouldn’t be, either.
Of course, if your pound cake feels hard as a brick or has started to develop a trust around the outer perimeter it might not be unsafe to eat. But it might not taste the way you are expecting it to taste, either.
As a general rule of thumb, any pound cake that hasn’t been frozen solid for long-term storage is probably no longer good after about a week or 10 days.
Closing Thoughts
There you have it – pretty much everything you need to know about storing pound cake the right way and squeezing every bit of “life” from this delicious dessert.
Stick to wrapping your pound cake in plastic at the very least and you’ll be able to get an extra dig two of freshness for sure.
Utilize the other tips and tricks we highlighted above, though, and you can double the length of time your pound cake stays fresh without a whole lot of headache, hassle, or extra effort.