I have a recipe that has been in our family. It uses whipped butter, cake flour, eggs, shortening, sugar, and vanilla. For some reason the last two times I have made it, it stuck and ripped off the crust. This time, it also takes funny. I never had problems before . . not sure what is going on. It is very frustrating. Should I let the cakes get cold? or take them out when they are hot? I went in between on both of these times.

How are you greasing the pan?

When it comes to cakes, I always take everything out of the pan with in 5 to 15 mins after it has come out of the oven. The longer you want what you use to grease the pan will harden and cause the cake to stick.

As far as the funny taste, were any of the things used in it older? Different brand?

I always use parchment paper on the bottom of my cake tins and slightly melted butter on the sides, when I bake pound cake I add a light dusting of flour then tap out the excess. All my cakes cool for exactly 20 minutes before removing from the pan, but since pound cakes are higher, I let them cool 30 minutes and then remove from pan.

Perhaps you should try a different recipe, if you're not getting good results. I have never tried shortening or whipped butter in a pound cake as a true pound cake is supposed to have that natural buttery flavor. My pound cake recipe uses a reverse creaming method (the butter is creamed with the flour, then the eggs are added) and the result is delicious and buttery with the softest crumb on a pound cake ever. It melts in your mouth. It is also the easiest cake to make in my repertoire, which is why I love it so much.

Thanks for these replies. I don't think any of the ingredients were older, and I have allergies, so maybe it's my tastebuds. Also, I don't grease the pan-- I just put parchment in the bottom-- tube pan. I think I will probably try getting them out earlier-- I think I let them cool too long in the pan.