Maybe you just need to leave it a bit longer in the pan before removing?

What type of material is the pan made from & what did you use to grease & flour it? Haven't used 1 in many years, but the 1 I used to have had a removable bottom:

And did you use a knife to loosen it first?

WOW, I had the exact same problem when I tried to make it. I was so surprised because I think that's the one and only problem with any recipe in that book I've ever encountered. That is my favorite recipe book but I thought it was something I had done wrong. Will be interesting to see if someone knows the answer.

I am guessing you didn't bake it long enough....
Did you test it or just go by time?
Well actually, from researching other pound cake recipes, you should be baking that at 350 not 300.
I never make just a random recipe from the web....I try to go with a known cook, like Martha Stewart, King arthur flour, Paula Deene, Southern living.

The balance of ingredients are "off" for a "modern" pound cake - according to "BakeWise" by Shirley O. Corriher. Too much fat and not enough flour. Rather than trying to adjust the recipe, I'd suggest using Shirley's Even Greater American Pound Cake - http://community.kingarthurflour.com/node/3420

-Grainlady

Hmmm. I just made this one, and it's moist and delicious. I did use a non-stick bundt pan, baked at 325F and I let it cool in the pan on the rack for 15 minutes before trying to turn it out.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Confectioners' sugar, optional

Cream butter. Gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy, about 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream and vanilla. Beat on low just until blended. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. tube pan. Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar if desired. Yield: 20 servings.

As you can see, I used 50% of the butter used in your recipe, 25% more sour cream than you used milk, and 75% less flour, as well as a bit of leavening. Eggs and sugar remained the same as does the 2 tsp of extract(s). I used homemade pan spray on the already nonstick bundt pan, so I think that helped.

I think it's a combination of a bit too much fat in relation to flour, perhaps the temperature and definitely the pan. I have a couple of tube pans and find them difficult to remove cakes from intact, no matter how I prepare them.

If I were trying to adapt that recipe I think I'd turn the heat up and scale the butter down, for starters, and go from there.

Good luck, it's all delicious, so that's a good thing.

Annie

Naturally we've tried cooking longer, letting rest longer, and all the basics....still without success. Hard to believe a published Southern Living recipe could be so difficult.

Annie, your recipe sounds delicious, and I have other pound cake recipes that come out perfectly. Let me know if you have success with the Million Dollar Pound Cake without making any changes. Thanks. Pink

I just checked with Southern Living and discovered that in their recipe for Million Dollar Pound Cake the ingredients are the same but the directions are different from the recipe I have. This is a 2002 recipe, so I've no idea if changes were made or added. However, plan to try again using their new-to-me directions, and appreciate all help offered here. Sorry if your time was wasted, but this is such a good cake you might want to check out SL's complete recipe.

Do you have a link for the correct recipe? What is the difference in the instructions?

You mean that when that cake didn't turn out the first time and then the second time.....you still made it again?
No way would I have considered using all that butter and eggs on a recipe that didn't work even once!
Did you have people to eat all those failures? I like toasted pound cake bits layered with a vanilla custard and some fruit....but 4 or more pound cakes is a whale of a lot of trifle!

pwm, time baking is never wasted! I'm still working on finishing off the current Mother's Day pound cake, but am open to trying the SL one next time, I don't really have a "favorite".

So the 2002 recipe is the one with the changes, or have changes been made since then?

Annie

I make cream cheese pound cake, from Southern Living. It's easy and comes out perfect.

I just checked to see if there was an updated Million dollar recipe but the one I saw still had cooking at 300 for 1 hour 40 minutes, so I'm not sure what the updated one you referenced to, would be.

Linda....remember this has been trials over the years by different people, and it's such a delicious cake!

Pillog, Jasdip .... If you check at Southern Living under Million Dollar Pound Cake you will find the directions that are different from the recipe I have.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/million-dollar-pound-cake-0

I just got up. Maybe I'm too sleepy to figure out what the substantial difference is, rather than just the explanations for how to bake (creaming, etc.) and the exact wording. Am I missing something that's really different? One thing that the detailed instructions didn't say, but is normal, is to bring all the ingredients to room temperature before you start mixing. That won't make it release better, though.

The low heat should help the egg rising (the egg to butter ratio being so low, and the larger proportion of liquid), but given that, it's essential to use a tube or loaf pan if you want it to be cooked through.

For releasing, spray will probably never do it. I'm old fashioned enough to use butter and fine barley flour (Wondra), and I'm very careful to do so very evenly and thoroughly, but any number of people swear by the goop. Here is the goop recipe Jasdip posted some years ago:

Better
than Pam recipe from Jasdip

• 1/2 cup corn, canola or vegetable oil
  1/2 cup shortening, room temperature
  1/2 cup flour
• Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer until it has increased in volume slightly and resembles marshmallow cream.
• Store in a covered container in the cupboard. If it separates upon
  sitting, just stir before using. You can spread it with a brush, but I
  just scoop it up with my fingers.

Like plllog, I'm trying to determine any real difference in instructions, there are minor adjustments, but nothing significant that I can find which would impact the way the cake releases from the pan. If the fat and sugar is not beaten long enough it would impact texture, but shouldn't make the cake stick.

Annie

Line your pan with parchment, grease the parchment....it will release.
Or find a different recipe...because obviously this one doesnt' work!

In many other pound cake recipes I've used successfully I've not beaten the butter as long as seven minutes, nor have I combined the butter and sugar until the contents are white. Assume these directions differ the results? Or not?

They should help your cake be lighter. Pound cake in general is fairly dense. These are standard cake baking instructions, even for when you have baking powder, however. The "white" part may depend on how yellow your butter is, and how yellow your yolks are in the next step, but they'll certainly be lighter. The exact length of time depends on your mixer. If you have a big KA rather than a little Procter-Silex, you'll probably need less beating time, and should beware of overbeating. The likely reason the first version didn't have these instructions was that the person who copied it out figured that those were a given. Especially when someone is trying to fit it on a file card, the "everybody knows this" instructions get cut, even though not everybody does.

None of this will affect your cake releasing from the pan, however. Both versions say greased and floured pan, so believe them. That's key, though the "better than pam" will probably do the trick (I say "probably" because I haven't tried it yet, but everyone says yes), being a combination of grease and flour. Or parchment and grease as Linda suggested. That can be tricky in a round pan to get just right, but it's foolproof once you get the paper in right. And use a tube or loaf pan, rather than something wider (a tube is a round loaf pan--the heat comes up the middle to bake from the center out, making the center a "side").

The only thing I'd add to the full recipe with the detailed instructions has been stated previously--you might need to cool it in the pan on the rack a bit longer. Feel it when it comes right out of the oven. It should be a bit damp and springy on top (not a lot). When it's only a bit warm and feels drier and firmer on top, the steam has mostly escaped. Then you can put the tube pan on a coffee can or something and gently slide the outside down. Let the sides get a bit firmer and dryer, then use the two plates method to turn it off the tube part of the pan. If you use loaf pans, go right to the two plates (loosen lightly with a butterknife or thin metal spatula/spreader if it's clinging to the sides, place a big enough plate over the top, invert, remove pan quickly making sure the cake isn't clinging or go back to loosening, immediately cover with second plate and invert to right side up). Again, make sure the top is firm before inverting so it doesn't stick to the plate.