Otis Lee’s Detroit Famous Poundcake
- Total Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
Advertisement
Ingredients
Yield:One 10-inch cake
- 1½cups/340 grams unsalted butter (3 sticks), softened at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
- 3cups/385 grams cake flour, plus more for the pan
- 8ounces/225 grams cream cheese, softened
- 3⅓cups plus 1 tablespoon/680 grams granulated sugar
- 6eggs, at room temperature
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1teaspoon lemon extract
- 1tablespoon cornstarch
- 2teaspoons baking powder
- ½teaspoon fine salt
- 2tablespoons cream cheese, softened
- 1tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
- 1tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
- Lemon juice, to taste
For the Cake
For the Glaze
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch/12-cup Bundt pan.
- Step 2
Make the cake: In a large bowl, combine softened butter, cream cheese and granulated sugar. Using a hand mixer, beat on high speed until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Rinse the beaters and in a separate large bowl, add eggs and beat until light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes. (The fluffier the eggs, the fluffier the cake.) Add the beaten eggs, vanilla and lemon extracts to the butter and cream cheese mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Step 3
In another large bowl, add cake flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt; whisk to combine. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Increase the speed to high and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Transfer to the prepared pan.
- Step 4
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. (Do not open the oven door before 20 minutes have passed, as the temperature shift can flatten the cake.)
- Step 5
While the cake bakes, make the glaze: In a small saucepan over low heat, combine cream cheese, butter and confectioners’ sugar and whisk until smooth. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, and add lemon juice to taste and to adjust consistency. (Icing should be thin enough to drizzle, but still retain some body.)
- Step 6
When the cake is done, remove from the oven, and unmold immediately to a plate or serving platter. Pour the glaze over the top. (Doing this when the cake is warm helps the glaze soak in.) Serve warm or at room temperature. To store, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for several months.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
DD Thexton
Can you please clarify; does the "do not open oven door for 20 minutes" instruction refer to during the baking time, or after it is done - like, leave it in the oven after turning off heat? Thanks!
Kassy
I love this story. Times cooking ought to go around America finding recipes like this
R Stuart
I left out the sugar and substituted laundry starch for all the flour. Replaced the eggs with library paste, and used A-1 sauce instead of lemon juice. Baked for 12 hours at 150 degrees. Disaster! What did I do wrong?
Danielle
I grew up on Mr. Fofo's. That food was DELICIOUS. I remember stopping in just to pick up some cobbler or a piece of cake. The restaurant and Mr. Lee are greatly missed in Detroit. Thanks so much for the recipe!
GG
I am from Detroit and my aunt worked at Fofo's. It was a Detroit institution for years and it is very sad that Mr. Lee has passed away. Fofo's definitely did not skimp on the food. Their corned beef sandwiches were large enough to make at least five other sandwiches from the one sandwich. The cake slices were big enough to share with four other people. You always got much more than you paid for at Fofo's and it's nice that Mr. Lee's son is sharing a treasured family recipe.
David
Measure out the flour using all-purpose. Remove 6 tbsp from what you've measured. Add back 6 tbsp cornstarch.
Ann
My husband died a few months before Otis, and his fave cake was traditional English pound cake. I told my kids about Otis and we watched the Youtube vid and cooked this cake wishing things were different. The cake and instructions were perfect.* Def on my Do-Again list. And good for lunchboxes, too. Sending all our love to Keith. *Did not have lemon essence though but lemon zest worked okay I think
Great texture, But very sweet!
I loved making this cake- so fluffy and the bake is beautiful. The batter is too sweet though, I will knock off 200 grams of sugar next time I make it. Also the recipe calls for a glaze that is much thinner and soaks into the cake. The NYT food styling is misleading as they made a glaze with at least 2 cups of confectioners sugar, not 1tbsp! Do not be alarmed if your glaze doesn’t turn out like the one in the photo....Thanks for sharing this sorry NYT!
Nancy P
Do NOT open the oven for the first 20 minutes that the cake is baking. You will want to take it out of the oven as soon as it is done.
MSN
Need? I would say yes and that you need one from Nordic Ware; they are not cheap, but they are the best and you can often find them on sale. The ones I have used most during the pandemic hold six cups. That way you can make two bundt cakes and give one away, or freeze it.
EricJM
Adding cornstarch to any cake recipe makes the cake more tender. I would recommend adding to every cake recipe. Also does the same for cookie and shortbread recipes. It's like a 'secret' ingredient to better baked goods. The little lift from the baking powder doesn't hurt either.
ByrneBaker
Cake flour is different than all purpose flour (APF). It is more finely milled and has less protein which results in a lighter, more delicate crumb. You can use APF in its place with a couple changes tho, typically reducing each cup of flour by 2 tbsp and some recommend adding in 2tbsp of cornstarch in its place. Search “substitute all purpose flour for cake flour” and a bunch of sites will give you good advice.
Margaux Laskey, Senior Staff Editor, NYT Cooking
I made this last night, and it is so, so lovely. The texture is really something special. Is it the cornstarch? Maybe. Or is it magic? Probably.
Liz
If I wanted to halve this (theres only 2 of us) would a regular loaf pan work? Taking into consideration the baking time of course. Thanks, and it sounds like Thanksgiving breakfast!!
TH
Lemon juice will actually be a lot less prominent in lemon flavour after baking. Extract will give you a good lemon flavour without adding too much acid/liquid to the batter
Violet
I’ve tried to make this cake twice now, and each time total disaster. The first was probably my fault; when I turned it out onto a platter it was completely raw on the inside. I’d baked it for an hour. Second try, the outside was completely cooked and the top of the Bundt fell into a raw mess after 55mins baking time. I followed the recipe to a t. What am I doing wrong? I live in Denver and wondering if the altitude is the issue.
AMB
Loved this cake - we made it 6 days ago and it is still tender and delicious. I didn’t care for the glaze which got very weird and rubbery by day 2. I would just make a regular powdered sugar glaze next time. But the cake it self is definitely worth a repeat! Subtle flavor but so pleasant and a really pleasing pillowy texture.
Anne
Best poundcake ever! Omit lemon extract
Melissa
WOWWWWWWWW. I bake a TON and this is among the best things I’ve ever made. The fluffiest-ever batter, the cake, light as air. Beautiful crumb, gorgeous flavor. The baking time for this recipe should be updated. My cake took a solid 90 minutes (I put foil on the top after 45 minutes). The icing can be thinned out with a little milk. Add lemon to taste and drizzle in whole milk to get the proper drizzly texture. This is a beautiful cake. Thank you, Mr. Lee.
Jennifer
I cannot for the life of me get a glaze to look like that. Especially not if I also want it to taste lemony — I have to add too much powdered sugar. Usually my glaze is far too runny. Suggestions welcome!
lees pound cake
Better next day very light moor like cake then pound cake good taste very lemony would make again but I still think old hotel cake is better just structure more heavy moor like a true pound cake
Anna
Made it as is. Used my instant read thermometer to 210 and it was perfect. I used juice from a whole lemon in the icing. I was afraid it was going to be tart but a great balance to the cake.
Joe from Baltimore
My wife and I baked this cake last night using the brand new Bundt pan I bought her for our anniversary. This cake is amazing. We followed the directions as written making sure to time the mixing/whipping instructions exactly. It came out great. Only change I would make is to use a better more fluid lemon glaze; say confectioners sugar and lemon juice. That would give more icing coverage and get the soaking effect described in the recipe.
Hannah
Just made a half batch of this and WHOA! It's so good. Really fine crumb and love the hint of lemon flavor from the extract. It's homemade sara lee pound cake but better and lighter. Bringing this to a dinner tonight to eat with fresh berries and cinnamon whipped cream.
jsulat
This is a wonderful recipe. My only comment is to wait until the cake is baked before you make the icing. Otherwise it will cool and firm up before the cake is done and will not pour easily.
Leigh
This is a moist, very light, pound cake that I will be making again for Easter. I can understand why it is so popular in Detroit. Follow the directions but double amount of glaze per my husband's request.
Lolly
The instructions that came with my newly purchased Nordic pan, which when filled almost to the top, held 14 cups of water, said to fill the pan with batter no more than 3/4 full. This recipe hit that amount almost perfectly. I had no spill over. That’s the good news. The bad news is I missed judged the cooking time ( too much) and burned the outside of the cake. But the inside was great until it cooled off and then was pretty dry. I shall make a trifle out of what I could salvage.
LF
This was a big hit among my foodie friends. Doubled the icing. Very moist. Substituted the lemon extract with 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. I will make this again and again!
Jean
I just subscribed to the NYT Cooking YouTube channel because of this video.
S
Great recipe! Substituted half of the granulated sugar for coconut sugar and tastes great! The drizzle should be made right before taking the cake out of the oven because it starts to become a paste if you leave it out for an extended period of time. Overall great recipe along with the heartwarming video and history!
Private notes are only visible to you.
Advertisement
