Time Period: 1650-1799
Pound cake was not invented in America; like a lot of our early culture, it was imported from England. However, it's got plenty of history here, being mentioned in American recipes dating back to 1754. Electric mixers make its preparation a lot simpler than in those days. Baking a pound cake in the nineteenth century involved steps like washing salt out of butter and then rubbing it to a cream-like consistency with a wooden paddle, and finely grinding sugar with a mortar and pestle. One thing that hasn't changed is adherence to its name. Now, as then, it's made with a pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs.
Using unbleached flour would be closer to what original American cake makers would have done, but we work with what we've got, so all-purpose it was. I also got what's known as a "sad streak" - that circular dip around the top center of the cake. The book absolves me of any guilt about this, since not only is it considered good luck in the American South, but the artfully-arranged photo used to show off pound cake in the book has an even deeper one.
So, how was it? Not bad, not great. The outside crust was pretty tasty, but the the center was what Mary Berry would call "close-textured". It was extremely dense, and a bit dry. Maybe I left it in the oven too long? Maybe the batter was overmixed, and I knocked the air out of it? I'll likely attempt pound cake again in the future, and will try to make these kinds of tweaks, along with some flavor experimentation, like the addition of some lemon zest. Some cakes are best in their purest forms, but pound cake has probably stood the test of time because of its adaptability and constant change. Maybe it's American, after all.
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Pound cake was not invented in America; like a lot of our early culture, it was imported from England. However, it's got plenty of history here, being mentioned in American recipes dating back to 1754. Electric mixers make its preparation a lot simpler than in those days. Baking a pound cake in the nineteenth century involved steps like washing salt out of butter and then rubbing it to a cream-like consistency with a wooden paddle, and finely grinding sugar with a mortar and pestle. One thing that hasn't changed is adherence to its name. Now, as then, it's made with a pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs.
Using unbleached flour would be closer to what original American cake makers would have done, but we work with what we've got, so all-purpose it was. I also got what's known as a "sad streak" - that circular dip around the top center of the cake. The book absolves me of any guilt about this, since not only is it considered good luck in the American South, but the artfully-arranged photo used to show off pound cake in the book has an even deeper one.
So, how was it? Not bad, not great. The outside crust was pretty tasty, but the the center was what Mary Berry would call "close-textured". It was extremely dense, and a bit dry. Maybe I left it in the oven too long? Maybe the batter was overmixed, and I knocked the air out of it? I'll likely attempt pound cake again in the future, and will try to make these kinds of tweaks, along with some flavor experimentation, like the addition of some lemon zest. Some cakes are best in their purest forms, but pound cake has probably stood the test of time because of its adaptability and constant change. Maybe it's American, after all.
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