Store Bought Pound Cake, Ranked Worst To Best

Pound cake is a simple and unassuming confection. It gets its name based on the ingredients: one pound each of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. This makes remembering the basics of the cake easy and also makes it infinitely customizable. It also leaves some room for improvement. A little salt here and a hint of vanilla there all go to punch up the flavor of this delicious cake.

Even with its simplicity, however, not everyone wants to make their own cake at home, and we get it, especially if that means turning on the oven during an excessively hot day. The good news is that many grocery store chains offer pound cakes in their bakery, and classic packaged baked goods companies such as Sara Lee and Entenmann's include pound cakes in their lineup. This means you will never have to go without one of these sweet treats; the bad news is the range in quality of these cakes is excessive.

We sat down and tried eight store-bought pound cakes, to determine which ones were worth buying and which ones were better left on the shelf. To find the best cake, we looked at the appearance, consistency, and overall taste of the cakes, and we'll explain more about our methodology at the end. The perfect pound cake isn't too light, and it offers a rustic yet delectable crumb. Did any of the ones we tried reach perfection? Read on to find out more.

From the moment we saw this Walmart bakery cake, we had some hesitations. Sadly, those hesitations turned out to be justified. The cake itself is nicely domed, however, there is an almost unnatural puffiness to it, which gives it the look of foam. As we cut into the cake for the first time, we also noticed the inside was stark white — not a hint of buttery yellow to be found. The cake itself is also incredibly light and crumbly, and it did not hold together or provide the density we were looking for.

Despite butter being literally in the name of this cake, butter does not appear on the ingredient list. This does at least help explain the lack of butter flavor. This cake does not taste like cake. Instead, it oddly tastes like grocery store frosting. It is overly sweet and fluffy and has an artificial sweet vanilla flavor. Predictably, no real vanilla is found on the ingredient list.

Not only does this cake not have the attributes of a pound cake, it is just not a very good cake in general. We prefer never to eat this selection again and there are certainly better pound cake options to be had.

Next, we have the vanilla flavored Whole Foods 365 Bakery Pound Cake. It is worth knowing straight up — this cake is made of lies. First of all, despite being labeled as vanilla, one bite is enough to show that is not the case. We immediately tasted citrus, and after investigating the ingredient list, we discovered an orange listed in the cake flavoring. We are not, in principle, against orange pound cake, but we are when the product is clearly labeled as vanilla.

Had the cake been delicious, we probably could have overlooked this. However, it is not. This cake is dry and even has an orange tinge to the color. It both looked like and had the consistency of cornbread, and it did not hold together or taste like pound cake. Overall, we were not impressed with the Whole Foods bakery section pound cakes. It is slightly better than Walmart's pound cake, but that's not saying a lot.

Coming up just slightly ahead is Whole Foods Banana Nut Pound Cake. Once again, we have a cake that simply doesn't meet our expectations of what a pound cake should be. With the addition of bananas and walnuts, it really felt and tasted more like banana bread than pound cake. Where the Walmart cake is too light and fluffy, however, this cake is too dark in color and too dense to really be considered a pound cake.

Even with the inclusion of bananas, this cake somehow managed to still be dry. It is honestly impressive how the Whole Foods Bakery could make something with this many moist ingredients taste like a dry and crumbly mess.

The only reason it comes above the others is because it is at least edible. Paired with some ice cream or something to bring some extra moisture, this cake might be palatable. And unlike the previous two, at least it isn't lying about its flavor. As it currently is, though, we would not choose this cake when the pound cake craving hits.

We feel a little bad having the vegan pound cake fall on the bottom half of this list; we really hoped it would do better. Just looking at the cake itself, you can see that it falls flat ... literally. Where there should be a crackled open puffy top, there is a flattened spread-out divot. And the cake doesn't get much better from there.

The cake offers an oddly brown color, and does not hold together particularly well. It is also a hint on the dry side. We understand that when you remove one of the main four ingredients, it can be a struggle to find an adequate replacement, but vegan baking has come a long way in the past several years, so we hoped for more from this.

The flavor of the cake is not offensive but is incredibly dull. Instead of butter, you can taste the oils used to make this, which just isn't what you want from something that is supposed to be butter forward.

It's better than those lower on the list simply because it is inoffensive, but not because it is particularly good. Once again, this would likely need to be paired with something such as a vegan ice cream rather than eaten on its own to make it truly enjoyable.

Unlike most of the pound cakes we tried, Entenmann's did not come in a single loaf. Instead, it came in a large box with six individually packaged square cakes. These are good for snacking but not ideal if you are trying to find a good dessert for a group. The company does make a loaf, but we were unable to find it on this occasion.

That said, the packaging of the cakes is not a make-or-break factor for us. What we do care about is the little cakes themselves. While these cakes are generally fine, they definitely come off a bit artificial in just about every way.

The cakes are incredibly squishy and appear unnaturally white. The cake almost looks and tastes more like an angel food cake rather than a pound cake. We don't dislike angel food cake, but that is not what we are looking for here, and when judging it as a pound cake, it falls short. We wanted a substantially buttery cake, which this is not. We found that we could even squish this cake down a bit, and it would just pop right back out, which is disconcerting.

While the texture is off, the flavor isn't terrible. This pound cake does actually include the four main pound cake ingredients in it: flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. Had Entenmann's simply stopped there and not added all those leaveners and artificial flavors and preservatives, it likely could have ranked higher on this list.

The dependable name of Sara Lee marks the turning point of this list. We would not necessarily recommend the cakes ranked lower, and while Sara Lee's pound cake is not a perfect example, there is a lot it gets right.

Unlike the other cakes on this list, you are not going to find Sara Lee pound cake on a shelf, instead this cake is in the freezer section, and must be thawed before eating. While this is a bit of a hassle, with some planning, you get a light and moist cake that has not sat drying out on the shelf for days.

Visually, this cake is much closer to a pound cake than others. This cake offers a rounded top, and a deep yellow color inside, with a dark caramelized exterior. Cutting through this cake is easy, as the cake holds together. Instead of coming off as excessively light and fluffy though, this pound cake has substance.

We also see the first four ingredients on the list mirroring the classic pound cake recipe. This helps justify the flavor, which is pleasantly moist and buttery. This is the first cake on this list that can be easily enjoyed on its own, and it does not need to be topped or served with an accompaniment in order to be edible.

The Fresh Market is really bringing its "A" game with the bakery. Not only did the company deliver a delicious pound cake, but it went above and beyond on the flavor. Fresh Market offers a number of flavored pound cakes. Reviewing each one seemed redundant, so we opted for a popular flavor: a mixture of cranberry, orange, and walnut.

Not only does this pound cake include dried cranberry and orange flavor, there is a lovely bit of streusel topping that just adds more texture. We do not mind the orange flavor here as we did with Whole Foods, because this cake at least told us about the flavor!

Honestly, this cake is hard to put down; it is so good. The inside is moist and rich, and it has a bit of a crumble, but not too much. This is the kind of cake we would want to eat slice after slice of. The inside offered a pale yellow color, and while it is not perfectly buttery, it definitely brought the sweet flavor and textures we were looking for.

If you are a cake for breakfast person, this would make an excellent morning meal. Our only complaint is it can't really be topped with anything because there is so much going on with the flavors already.

That brings us to our top pick. Given the options, this is the cake we would come back to every time. Just one look at that cracked open, domed top with a pale yellow inside, and you know this cake is going to be good.

Here we finally have a substantial and hearty pound cake worthy of its name. The cake cuts easily and has a light crumb. The inside is moist and lightly buttery. We would happily eat this on its own or as part of a dessert topped with fruit, chocolate, ice cream, or whatever else is available. This is both the best-tasting pound cake on the list and the one that is the most versatile.

We also appreciate the powdered sugar on top. This is a nice, sweet touch that really helped this pound cake hold its own as a sweet vanilla cake without the need for additional flavors or toppings.

Ultimately, Fresh Market hit the nail on the head with flavor, texture, and consistency. There really isn't anything it gets wrong, and was easily the best one we tried.

To complete our tasting, all cakes were purchased and tasted on the same day. This was to ensure freshness and provide equal ground for all cakes. We did not take into account the price of the cakes; instead, we focused entirely on the cake quality.

A pound cake should be fairly dense, not light and fluffy, based on the origins of the cake. So, this is the metric we used when determining the texture. We also looked for a cake with a slight yellowish hue and a buttery flavor. Without the latter, a pound cake simply doesn't taste like a pound cake.

We chose to include flavored pound cakes, in addition to plain and vanilla varieties, to provide a well-rounded view of the variety of pound cakes available at many stores. To accurately judge these, we assessed the execution of the additional flavors and how they served the cake overall, rather than our personal preferences for the taste.