    
Pound Cake
A Pound Cake is a rich, dense cake. It can be plain, or have flavouring extracts or citrus rind added to it.
It is made from butter, egg, flour and sugar. There is no leavener in the cake, just the air whipped into the batter while making it.
Recipes for Pound Cake or commercially-made Pound Cakes that say "all butter" aren't exactly accurate: if it were all butter, it would just be a block of butter weighing a pound. Obviously, there's other ingredients such as flour in these cakes. What they mean, though, is that for the fat, all butter was used, instead of other commercial fats such as margarine, etc.
It originally contained 1 pound each of butter, eggs, flour and sugar (about 8 large eggs weighing 2 oz each), thus the name "pound." You can tell more modern recipes, as they will include baking powder, and some liquid such as milk or alcohol.
You beat the butter and sugar until they are light and creamy, then add the eggs one at a time and beat them in, alternating them with the flour, sifted in advance two or three times to introduce air (this step is particularly important if you are using an authentic recipe with no baking powder; less important if you are using a modern recipe that calls for baking powder.) You cook at a moderate temperature, then remove from oven and let cool for an hour or so in the pans before turning out onto wire racks. It has to be baked in a moderate oven (about 350 F / 175 C); any hotter and the middle may not get cooked properly, as it is so dense
If you separate the eggs and beat the whites separately, you will get a lighter cake, but it won't be as moist. The eggs should be room temperature before starting so that more air will get into them.
.The French call it Pound Cake "Quatre Quarts", which means "four fourths", referring to the equal portions of eggs, flour, sugar and butter. The French version is the same as the English, with even the modern French recipes reaching for baking powder, but in the French mind, there's less emphasis on the pound of each (which would be hard, considered that the French haven't used pounds since the 1780s), but rather equal portions. You start out by weighing how many eggs you are going to use, and then weigh out the same amounts of flour, sugar and butter.
For instance, you'd weigh out 2 large eggs, and find that they come to 100 g. So you'd use 100 g each of flour, sugar and butter. (If the eggs weigh something like 95 g or 107 g, you round up or down to the nearest practical number to work with.) The French versions are more likely to have the egg whites beaten separately.
In French-speaking parts of the Caribbean, particularly in places such as Martinique and Guadeloupe, Pound Cake with rum added is served on Christmas Eve. Sometimes a mashed, ripe banana is added as well for extra moistness. There, too, the egg whites will be beaten separately.
In France, Brittany is particularly well-known for its Pound Cake.
In the UK, Pound Cakes tend to be made round. In North America, it is more common to bake them in a loaf pan.
History
Pound Cake appears to have originated in the 1700s in England. It was written up by Hannah Glasse in her "Art of Cookery" (published 1747.)
By the mid-1800s, Pound Cake recipes started to add liquids, and in the 1900s, baking powder was added to the recipes. And though butter, eggs, flour and sugar are still used, the proportions have been adjusted to make the cake less heavy
Also called:  Gâteau Quatre-Quarts (French) Sandkuchen (German) Queque Seco (Spanish)
Other entries for Cakes
Aboukir, Alaska Florida, Apple Potato Cake, Baked Alaska, Banbury Cakes, Boston Cream Pie, Boston Favorite Cake, Cheesecake, Chocolate Cake, Christmas Cakes, Clafoutis, Coconut Squares, Coffee Cake, Cupcakes, Eccles Cakes, English Madelines, Fairy Cakes, Flan, Frosting, Genoa Bread, Genoa Cake, Jaffa Cakes, Kugelhopf Cakes, Lamingtons, Marzipan Potatoes, Melton Hunt Cake, Mustacae, Napolitain Cakes, Pasta Margherita, Pasta Paradiso, Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, Pound Cake, Sheath Cakes, Sheet Cakes, Simnel Cake, Slab Cake, Sponge Cakes, Tipsy Parson, Torte, Tranche Napolitaine, Twelfth Night Cake, Twinkies, Upside-Down Cakes, Whirlin Cakes, Yule Log
Other entries for Desserts
Aboukir Almonds, Angel Delight, Applesauce, Bananas Foster, Bangbelly, Belgian Waffles, Bhapa Doi, Bizcocho Borracho, Blancmange, Cassata Gelata, Cassata, Cassatelle di Ricotta, Cherries Jubilee, Chiboust Cream, Compote, Cookies, Cream Tea, Crème d'amandes, Crème Plombières, Cumberland Rum Butter, Custard, Doughnuts, Dream Topping, Dream Whip, Dutch Crunch Topping, Eton Mess, French Toast, Fürst-Pückler-Eis, Halvah, Ice Cream Cones, Marshmallows, Meringue Italienne, Meringue Powder, Meringue, Mishti Doi, Moonpies, Nanaimo Bars, Nun's Tummies, Orange à la Norvegienne, Pastry Cream, Pies & Tarts, Poor Knights of Windsor, Poutine au Pain, Poutine à Trou, Puddings, Spumoni, Syllabub, Timbale Brillat-Savarin, Tiramisù, Tortoni, Trifle, Vark, Waffles, Wagashi, Warabi Mochi, Zuccotto
Other entries for Dishes
Dumplings, Ozoni, Salads, Savoury Dishes, Zoni
Top...
|
|
| |
|