I enjoy baking pound cakes but cannot seem to get that thin dark brown crust. I finally mastered getting out of the tube pan in one piece (-: and the flavor is great. I have used a few different methods, try to follow directions exactly, and am exacting in measurements and having things at room temp. Generally, I am baking at 325 for an hour and 15 min. Should I increase temperature? Time? Both?

Thoughts appreciated.....

Hi,

Do you happen to live in a high altitude area?

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~T. Martin

200 ft above sea level... (-:

I found the center of the cake to be a bit under done. Now my question is should it have been longer in cook time (1hr 15) or higher temperature (325)?

My stove might be off a bit in temperature reading but my other baking seems to work quite well. Can this be checked using a digital meat thermometer?

A lady that I know makes great pound cakes. She said that to get that "crispy" crust she greases the pan with shortning and then instead of flouring the pan she uses sugar. I tried it and it was really good and browned nicely.

Sugar on the pan sounds good however I found the cake to be to sweet already. I am thinking of decreasing the over all amount of sugar so I can try your suggestion.

I would highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. Unless you're someone who has their oven calibrated regularly (other than chefs I don't know any who has this done) it's likely your oven runs hot or cold, even 5-10 degrees difference can effect the final outcome. Not sure if a digital meat thermometer would work but you could give it a try. Essentially what you need is a thermometer that will show you the temp around the area where your pan is in the oven (ovens have hot spots and cool spots).

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~T. Martin