A few weeks ago I fell down the internet rabbit hole. Several wasted hours and one great dress purchase later, I somehow stumbled upon a recipe for Elvis Presley’s favourite pound cake. The story behind the cake goes like this. While Jane and Michael Stern were conducting research for their book Elvis World, they interviewed Elvis’ childhood friend Janelle McComb. Every year at Christmas, she’d bake two loaves of this pound cake and bring them to Graceland. Apparently, Elvis loved it so much, he could eat one all by himself. On the 10th anniversary of Elvis’ death she shared her recipe for this pound cake with the Sterns. She wanted to do everything she could to help keep the legend alive.
My youngest son is a colossal Elvis fan, so I knew I had to bake it for him when he came to visit us last week. Since we were in Florida I added some orange zest to the cake batter and topped it with an orange icing sugar glaze. I dubbed it “Citrus Pound Cake by the Ocean.” I apologize if I have given you an ear worm! I can’t get it out of my head either.
We all loved this cake. My husband, who is not a huge cake fan, just adored it. He does not like light and fluffy cakes. My little Elvis fan, while partial to chocolate cake, was also quite smitten with it. This cake somehow manages to be dense and moist at the same time time. This cake incorporates three sources of fat: butter, eggs (yolks contain fat) and 35% heavy cream. The amazing texture is accomplished by beating the cake batter for over 10 minutes, until it is ultra creamy and satiny.
The cake stays moist for days. We were still snacking on it five days after I baked it and it somehow tasted just as good, if not better. 
I accented the cake with orange zest. I think it would also be delicious with lemon. I am thinking about creating a lime version with the addition of coconut in the batter!
Once the cake cooled, I added an orange glaze. 
You won’t be able to help falling in love with this cake.
Click here to print recipe for Citrus Poundcake by the Ocean.
This cake looks amazing! I love citrus. You know that the words, “stays moist for days”, are going to catch my eye. What a great care package recipe this is! Beating the batter for 10 minutes is a loooong time. Why does long beating make some things like satin and other things tough? The chemistry of baking is so often a mystery to me!
Wendy, I did think of you as we were eating this cake on day 5. You are right, it is a great cake for shipping. There are very few cakes you can say that for, other than fruitcake, and who wants to eat that????
The science of baking fascinates me. I am a bit of a food science geek and love Cook’s Illustrated, Alton Brown and Harold McGee.
I just saw a recipe on Facebook for a key lime pound cake……I may have to try making your recipe into a key lime citrus cake!
I agree Karen, I think this cake would be amazing with key limes (and maybe some coconut!!) Send me a picture after you make it.
I’m going to try the lemon version for our next bridge game. It can’t miss – 4 women who love lemon and cake!
Question – as a former professional chef, I assume you measure by weight rather than volume. Is it possible to publish weight measurements as well for those people whose scales are their favourite baking appliance?
DJ, I think a lemon version would be amazing. For most of the recipes on my blog, I measure by volume, since most of my readers bake that way, and I want to make sure they can use the recipe. When I bake bread I bake by weight, and most of the artisan bread cookbooks out there do give weight measurements.
For your reference, you can check out this conversion chart by King Arthur. It is fairly comprehensive.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart.html
It’s the flour that’s always the issue for me. Depending on the conversion chart, AP flour is somewhere between 4.5 and 5 oz per cup, and my actual conversion always comes out to 5 oz when I use the aerate, dip and sweep method. So, I’m never sure when I see a recipe with volume measurements whether I’m using more flour than the recipe-writer intended. It’s just one more thing that affects the final product.
In any case, it’s interesting to know that you use primarily volume measurements.
Looks delicious and just thinking about it for afternoon snack with my tea for the week. I’ve had chocolate overload with 3 cakes for my son’s birthday last week. This citrus should lighten it up as I overlook the 3 different fats. Very pretty photos!
Hi Cindy, this cake looks soooo good! I just love that it’s made with cream. Definitely going to try this recipe. Just not in a Bundt pan. Me and Bundt pans don’t get along 🙁