Pound cake is pretty easy to make, but sometimes, you just want to spend a few extra dollars and get a sweet treat that’s ready to eat. Fortunately, there are some delicious grocery store options out there if you’re shopping around for a pound cake. Our ranking of 6 store-bought pound cakes from worst to best revealed one thing: If you want the best store-bought pound cake, you should pick yourself up one of Entenmann’s all butter loaf cakes.
Entenmann’s, a 127-year-old company founded in New York City, has a strong reputation on the supermarket bakery scene, and it didn’t let us down with its pound cake either. Despite going by a different name, this butter loaf cake gives you everything you could want out of a great pound cake. The crumb is tight and relatively dry without leaving your mouth feeling like a desert. The cake itself is sweet, but not overly saccharine. Most importantly, you can taste the richness of the butter right alongside the sugar and vanilla. Since a traditional pound cake only has four ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, and eggs), the flavor profile isn’t super complex. Entenmann’s all butter loaf cake really nails the balance between simplicity and delicious, clean flavors that will satisfy your sweet tooth.
How Entenmann sets the gold standard
Compared to other pound cakes on our list, Entenmann’s loaf cake stands out for a few reasons. First: the lack of artificial aftertaste and flavoring. Most other pound cakes on our list, especially the lowest ranking ones, have an artificial taste that’s pretty common for grocery store baked goods. You see, most stores sell baked goods that are partially baked elsewhere and only finished off at the grocery store, while other baked items like packaged pound cakes are made in industrial bakeries with additives and artificial flavoring that stand apart from the homemade stuff. Even Entenmann’s loaf cakes still have just a tiny hint of artificial flavor, but the richness of the butter stands out way more. You can also use Jacques Pépin’s upgrade on pound cake to elevate your dessert even further by simply adding fruit jam.
Basically, don’t buy any grocery store pound cake thinking it’ll stand toe-to-toe with a homemade version. You’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. That said, of the options available, Entenmann’s all butter loaf cake gives you just about everything you could want from a delicious pound cake without you having to set foot in your own kitchen. Even if it goes stale, you can learn how to turn your stale pound cake into French toast so you won’t waste a single bite. It’ll be well worth the money spent, from deliciously buttery start to finish.
