Chocolate Intrigue Cake: The delicious Bake-Off winning chocolate syrup pound cake recipe from 1962 - Click Americana (2024)

FAQs

Why was pound cake called pound cake? ›

The original recipe was essentially a cake that was made from a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, and a pound of eggs. This is actually where the pound cake received it's name. Each ingredient added to the cake weighed one pound.

The name (Pound Cake) comes from the fact that the original pound cakes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. No leaveners were used other than the air whipped into the batter. In the days when many people could not read, this simple convention made it simple to remember recipes.

As the cake bakes, these tiny air bubbles expand in heat, lightening the texture and making the cake rise. Add eggs to the creamed ingredients and you form an emulsion, putting to work the natural emulsifiers in egg yolks, which unite fat in the butter and water from the eggs.

History. It is believed that the pound cake is of northern European origin and dates back to the early 18th century. A recipe for pound cake appears in The Art of Cookery by Hannah Glasse, published in 1747. The first U.S. cookbook, American Cookery, published in 1796, has a recipe for pound cake.

Pound Cake is a dense cake with a moist texture while Angel Food Cakes have fluffy and airy foam interiors. The texture of Pound Cake is rich and solid, which makes it perfect for topping with icing or a dollop of whipped cream.

The differences include: Ingredients: Pound cake has more fat than regular cake, and has four ingredients: butter, eggs, flour, and sugar. Regular cake has the same four ingredients plus more ingredients. Regular cake also has baking powder, baking soda, and buttermilk or milk.

Given that one pound of ingredients was called for in those recipes, a true pound cake would weigh about four pounds total. Photo by Meredith. Today, the humble pound cake's construct has evolved to entail plenty of variations on the original concept.

This traditional pound cake recipe is over 100 years old and is the original kind of pound cake: it contains 1 pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour with no salt, baking powder, or flavoring.

How many eggs are in a pound? Eggs vary in weight since not all eggs are the same. Large eggs tend to weigh just short of 2 ounces each. It takes between 8 and 9 large eggs to equal one pound.

Mistake: Not Measuring Accurately

Be sure to use dry measuring cups for flour and sugar. Spoon flour into the cups and lightly level with the straight edge of a small offset spatula or knife. Extra sugar or leavening causes a cake to fall; extra flour makes it dry.

Why does pound cake crack on top? ›

First, why the crack occurs: Since quick breads and pound cake batters tend to be thick and dense, the exterior bakes first. But as the center of the cake continues to bake, releasing moisture, it rises, pushing through the top crust, and creating a crack.

It is also worth noting that the “Pound Cake” is now known by many names; “Madeira Cake” or “Yellow Cake” even simply “Loaf Cake”. No matter what it's called, one thing is for sure! The simple sponge cake recipe has stood the test of time and remained a staple for home baking!

That honor goes to a 4,176-year-old cake that was found in an Egyptian tomb, according to the Guinness organization. It is on display in a food museum in Switzerland.

The first cakes were very different from what we eat today. They were more bread-like and sweetened with honey. Nuts and dried fruits were often added. According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills.

Germany introduced a birthday cake during the 15th century at the festival Kinderfest, which was a celebration of children's birthdays. The cakes during this time were bread-like and very coarse.

1. (US) an attractive woman.

Aside from time (of which no one has anymore), pound cakes are one of the simplest cakes to make. While pound cakes are great for entertaining visitors, they are also used as a symbol to show your condolences toward a grieving family.

The English word pound derives from the Latin expression lībra pondō, in which lībra is a noun meaning 'pound' and pondō is an adverb meaning 'by weight'.