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Dessert

Pound Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, milk, and vanilla, baked for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Pound Cake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Pound Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake batter

  1. Beat a pound of butter into a cream, and mix with it the whites and yolks of eight eggs, beaten apart.

  2. Have ready by the fire a pound of flour, and the same of sifted sugar; mix them with a few cloves, a little nutmeg and cinnamon in a fine powder together.

  3. It must be beaten a full hour.

  4. Butter a pan, and bake a full hour in a quick oven. Be careful not to let it burn.

Make the omelet

  1. Beat up thoroughly six eggs, a teaspoonful of sweet cream or milk and a little salt.

  2. Fry in a pan in which there is one-half ounce of melted butter, over a quick fire. In order that the omelet may remain soft and juicy it is necessary that the pan should be hot before the eggs are poured in.

  3. During the frying move the pan continually to and fro. Continue until a cake is formed, then let it remain still a moment to brown.

  4. Turn out and serve immediately.

Make the cake with baking powder

  1. Stir the butter and sugar to a cream, then add six eggs, beating the yolks and whites separately.

  2. Add the yolks to the butter and sugar; add one pound of flour, three teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one cup of milk.

  3. Add the whites of the eggs the last thing; add one teaspoonful of vanilla.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

896Calories
28 gProtein
31 gFat
121 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness, and their whites add lightness when beaten.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming adds air.

The step that matters

Keep the pan hot before pouring in the eggs for the omelet. A hot pan sets the outside of the eggs quickly, keeping the omelet soft and juicy inside. A cool pan lets the eggs spread and dry out before setting.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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