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Dessert

Pound Cake

A dense cake made from equal parts butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Pound Cake

Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Pound Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the softened butter in a bowl, adding a tablespoon or two of boiling water if necessary.

  2. Gradually sift in the flour, stirring to maintain an even mixture.

  3. Once all the flour is added, beat the mixture for 5 to 10 minutes.

  4. Beat the egg yolks until light, then gradually add the sugar, beating hard for 5 minutes.

  5. Combine the creamed butter and flour with the yolk and sugar mixture, beating for another 5 minutes.

  6. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and extract gently.

Bake and cool

  1. Grease and flour a tube cake pan, then pour the batter into the pan.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for at least 1 hour, starting with low heat to allow the cake to rise slowly.

  3. Cool the cake in the pan, setting it upright on a cooling rack.

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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 gives the cake its rich, tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, aerated structure when beaten.
Wheat flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure, richness and moisture, and the whites help the cake rise when folded in.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the cake rises well instead of turning dense.

“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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