German Pound Cake

This entry gives proportions only; the method that would have followed it is not present, and neither are the eggs. Read it as a formula rather than a set of instructions.

• The list is incompleteTen ounces flour, eight butter, eight sugar and four of peel cannot make a pound cake on their own — there is no egg, no liquid and no raising agent. Eggs were almost certainly part of the original method, but the printed entry gives no quantity and none can be recovered from what survives.
• Weights in grams10 oz flour is about 285 g, 8 oz butter and 8 oz sugar about 225 g each, and 4 oz peel about 115 g. The near-equal butter, sugar and flour is the pound-cake signature, scaled down from the literal pound of each.
• Castor sugarCaster (superfine) sugar, not powdered or confectioners'. Its fine grain suits the long creaming of butter and sugar; ordinary granulated will cream but leaves a slightly coarser crumb.
• PeelCandied citrus peel, probably mixed lemon and orange. Chop it small and toss it in a spoonful of the weighed flour so it does not sink.
• FlourEnglish flour of the period was generally softer than modern all-purpose. If the crumb comes out tough, replace two ounces of the flour with cornflour or use a low-protein pastry flour.
• OvenNo method survives. As a modern working suggestion only: bake in a lined and buttered loaf or round tin at around 325F (165C), roughly an hour and a quarter for a single cake, tested with a skewer. Higher heat sets the crust before the centre rises.
• YieldThe listed ingredients come to 30 oz before any eggs, so expect roughly one loaf-sized cake cutting into ten to twelve slices. Like most pound cakes it improves after a day wrapped and kept cool.