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Dessert

Plain Pound Cake

A simple pound cake made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, milk, vanilla, and whisky.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Plain Pound Cake

Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Plain Pound Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat the eggs together until light.

  3. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  4. Add the milk and flour, and beat thoroughly.

  5. Mix in the eggs last, along with the baking powder combined with a little flour and the vanilla.

  6. Pour the batter into a pound cake pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for one hour.

  2. Let the cake stand in the pan for fifteen minutes before turning it out.

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.

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. Vanilla + milktop 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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Vanilla and sugar 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 adds richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure as they set and add moisture and richness to the crumb.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, aerated texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the cake rise and become lighter.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter blend into a smooth, even mixture.

The step that matters

Mix in the eggs last, along with the baking powder and vanilla. Adding eggs gradually and after the flour-milk mixture keeps the batter stable and evenly emulsified. Overmixing once flour is in develops gluten, which can toughen the cake.

“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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