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Modern Pound Cake
1 Cupful Sugar 2/3 Cupful Snowdrift 4 Eggs 1/2 Teaspoonful Vanilla Extract 1/2 Teaspoonful Lemon Extract 1 Tablespoonful Milk 1⅓ Cupfuls Flour 1/2 Teaspoonful Baking Powder 1/3 Teaspoonful Salt Cream together the Snowdrift and sugar, then beat in the eggs, one at a time, without preliminary whipping. Add the extracts, then sift together the dry ingredients, and add them to the first mixture with the milk. Transfer to a mediumsized cake-pan, which has been lightly rubbed with Snowdrift, and bake in a moderate oven, 350 degrees F., for about forty minutes. If desired, a little mace may act as flavoring.
A shortening-based pound cake from a brand cookbook, scaled down from the classic pound-of-each formula. It is straightforward to make; the only real substitutions concern the fat and the pan.
- SnowdriftA brand of hydrogenated cottonseed-oil shortening sold by the Southern Cotton Oil Company. Any modern vegetable shortening works in the same volume; unsalted butter, softened, also works and gives more flavour, though the crumb will be slightly less tender.
- The fat measure2/3 cup shortening is about 4.6 oz / 130 g. If you switch to butter, weigh rather than pack a cup — packed shortening and butter differ in density enough to matter in a cake this small.
- Eggs, one at a timeThe instruction not to whip the eggs first is deliberate. This cake carries only a little chemical leavening and depends largely on air beaten into the fat and sugar, then held by each egg as it emulsifies. Add the next egg only when the previous one has disappeared, or the batter will break.
- FlourPeriod soft-wheat flour was softer than modern all-purpose. For a finer crumb use cake flour, or replace 2 tablespoons of each cup of all-purpose flour with cornstarch.
- OvenThe recipe gives its own number, 350°F (175°C), which is what a period "moderate oven" meant. Check at 35 minutes.
- "Medium-sized cake-pan"This is roughly a quart of batter. An 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pan or a small 6-cup tube pan suits it; a 9-inch round would give a much shallower cake and would likely need less time than stated.
- MaceThe optional mace is the older pound-cake flavouring and it is worth using — about 1/4 teaspoon, ground, sifted with the dry ingredients. It sits better with the lemon than the vanilla does.
- YieldOne small loaf, 8 to 10 slices. Cool fully before cutting; shortening cakes firm up considerably as they come to room temperature.
Pound cake takes its name from the original English formula — a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs and flour — which needed no written recipe because the proportions were the recipe. This version departs from that in two ways: the quantities have been cut to household scale and measured by the cupful rather than the pound, and the butter has been replaced by hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Snowdrift was a cottonseed-oil shortening promoted heavily in the early twentieth century, when cottonseed oil was abundant in the American South and manufacturers issued free cookbooks to teach cooks to use their product in place of butter and lard. The small addition of baking powder is another departure, since a true pound cake rises on beaten air alone.