A Basic Old-Fashioned Pound Cake

A traditional Old-Fashioned Pound Cake, baked in a loaf pan, is just right for cutting into thick slices to serve with coffee or fresh summer fruit and whipped cream.

I love summer. There is a sweet simplicity in the minimalism of the season; less clothing, less ingredients, less fuss. In summer it is often the simple things that are the most appealing. I am drawn to backyard picnics, ice cold drinks in glass bottles still damp from the cooler, languid hours of sunshine slipping into a warm twilight, watching stars emerge in the darkening sky all the more striking for their tardiness.

On the summer menu fruit takes center stage. Watermelon, cherries, peaches and fresh berries are plentiful and go with everything. Fresh from the market, or perfectly ripe from the tree or vine, fruit is effortlessly beautiful and delicious. In it’s spectacular variety, summer fruit makes its way onto the table at breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is a part of flavorful appetizers, side dishes and, most especially, desserts. When fresh fruit is in season it needs only a dusting of sugar, a dollop of whipped cream and a simple cookie, biscuit, or slice of plain angel or pound cake to turn it into a luscious dessert. 

Complementing Summer Fruit

These accompaniments for fresh fruit are all within my baking comfort zone. Except for the Pound Cake, they are all posted at My Own Sweet Thyme. I have Meringue Cookies, short cake, Angel Food Cake, even Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream posted in my recipe index, but, until now, no recipe for a basic old-fashioned Pound Cake. 

For years I remained unaware of this oversight. Then one day, leafing through a favorite cookbook, I paused to read a recipe for Cold Peach Soup.  In the serving suggestions on the following page I read, “To serve as a dessert, spoon over thick slices of pound cake and garnish with whipped cream and blueberries.”

Though the recipe itself was intriguing, somehow this simple phrase in the serving suggestions was what drew me in. “Thick slices of pound cake,” I reread to myself. It sounded so appealing. Maybe I was just hungry, but those words, at that moment, dredged up memories of beautiful cakes I’d had the pleasure of eating over the years, plain slices of golden cake that were rich and buttery and flavorful.….and yet, searching my memory, I had to admit it was never me who had baked them.  

While I often use a Pound Cake as the base for my decorated cakes, the recipe I use is for a Basic Box Mix Pound Cake. It tastes good but doesn’t pass the scratch test. And I did bake an Eggnog Pound Cake for Twelfth Night several years ago. It was scratch made but the recipe was far from plain. What is missing here is a recipe for a straightforward, old-fashioned, plain vanilla Pound Cake. That is something I need to change.

The Formula for an Old Fashioned Pound Cake

A pound cake is quite simple in theory.  The name itself provides a sketch of the recipe.  In its most basic form it is a cake made from one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. No leavening agent is added. Instead, air is incorporated into the cake by beating the butter and sugar until it is very light and fluffy. While the beating can be done by hand this is one of those recipes where I feel extremely grateful to have a stand mixer in my kitchen. 

To find a more detailed recipe for a basic scratch made pound cake I turned to the pages of my trusty Better Homes and Gardens Complete Step~By~Step Cook Book.  This cookbook was a wedding gift. It is dog-eared, stained and has a burn mark on the back cover. It is where some of my best recipes began. I felt sure it could help me make a delicious pound cake too. 

Sure enough, I found just what I was looking for in the Technique section under Cakes and Frostings. I like that this Pound Cake recipe is baked in a single 9-inch loaf pan, a good size for a test recipe, or for a cake to cut into thick slices and serve with coffee or fresh fruit. I also like that it calls for a single cup of sugar, proportionally less than many other pound cake recipes I found.

Keeping All Things in Proportion

Curious about how the quantities called for in this recipe stacked up to those implied by the name of the cake, I weighed out the ingredients as I went along. It turns out that this recipe is quite close in proportion, though only half the size of a true pound cake.

The amounts listed for the ingredient of this recipe make it close to a true (Half) Pound Cake. By my calculation the 4 large eggs I used weighed 8 ounces. One cup of sugar weighs about 7 ounces and an additional ounce could easily be added without throwing the recipe off. While it seems like it would be a simple enough conversion, even the experts vary on the standard weight of flour. For weight conversions I tend to look to King Arthur, where I found that one cup of all-purpose flour should weigh 4.25 ounces, or Cook’s Illustrated, where they use 5 ounces as their standard. Using the lower measurement, this recipe calls for 8.5 ounces of flour. And, finally, one cup of butter clearly weighs 8 ounces. It is marked on the package.

Optimal Outcomes Begin at Room Temperature

For optimal results the butter and eggs should be at room temperature, about 65-70F, before you start mixing. That means your finger will leave an imprint in the butter if you press it gently. And the eggs will, you know, no longer feel cold in your hand. While there is no need for careful precision here, a good rule of thumb is to set out the eggs (preferably in a bowl so they don’t roll off the counter onto the floor. I’ve done that!) and butter, about 30 minutes to one hour before you begin mixing.

If you didn’t plan ahead, or didn’t remember, it’s no big deal. There are lots of ways to speed up the process if necessary. The butter can be cut into smaller pieces. The smaller the pieces, the faster it softens. Some say grate the butter. Some even suggest squashing it between sheets of waxed paper with a rolling pin. And the eggs can be set out in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes.

Altogether, considering basic authenticity, ease of preparation and availability of ingredients this is a solid and straightforward recipe.  It begins with a total of seven ingredients, only six of which I would deem essential.  You probably have them all on hand right now.  So lets start baking….