History Of The Pound Cake

The Pound Cake was created by the British back in  to the early 1700’s. The name Pound Cake comes from the fact that the original pound cake contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. In the days when many people couldn’t read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes.

In the cookbook American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, which is the first cookbook authored by an American and published in the United States, she wrote two Pound cake recipes :

-POUND CAKE – One pound fugar, one pound butter, one pound flour, ten eggs, rofe water one gill, spices to our tafte; watch it well, it will bake in a flow oven in 15 minutes.

-Another (called) POUND CAKE – Work three quarters of a pound butter, one pound of good fugar, till very white, whip ten whites to a foam, add the yolks and beat together, add one fpoon rofe water, two of brandy, and put the whole to one and a quarter of a pound flour, if yet to foft add flour and bake flowly.

In the 1900’s, baking powder was added to the recipes. Butter, eggs, flour, and sugar are still used but the proportions have been adjusted to make the cake less heavy.

Pound Cake is known with different names in many countries:

Southern US   Pound Cake

UK   Sponge Cake or Madeira Cake

France   Quatre-quarts

Mexico   Panqué

Colombia   Ponque

Germany   Eischwerkuchen