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Pound Cake (Cup shortening cup fine)
1/2 cup shortening 1 cup fine granulated sugar 4 eggs 1/4 cup milk 1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder Flavoring to taste Cream the shortening and sugar thoroughly. Add one egg at a time, beating the mixture well continually. Add all the milk, stir well and then stir in the dry ingredients sifted together. Grease paper and line a loaf pan with it and bake in a slow oven 1 hour. The cake may be flavored with mace and vanilla or with a teaspoon of lemon juice.
A scaled-down, chemically leavened descendant of the true pound cake, sized for a single loaf. The method is standard creaming, so the only real variables are oven heat and how much air you beat in.
- Slow ovenBake at 300-325F. At that heat a loaf of this size needs the full hour, sometimes a few minutes more; test with a skewer in the centre.
- Pan sizeThe recipe says only "a loaf pan." A small loaf pan, around 8x4 inches, suits this quantity of batter; a larger 9x5 will give a flatter cake that may be done before the hour is up, so start testing early.
- Lining with paperGreased parchment does exactly what the greased paper of the period did, and comes out cleanly. Line the base and long sides so you can lift the loaf out.
- ShorteningThe word covered any solid fat of the period: lard, a compound fat, or hydrogenated vegetable shortening, which gives a pale, tender, fairly neutral crumb. Unsalted butter substitutes cup for cup and tastes considerably better, though the cake will brown sooner.
- The creaming stageBeat shortening and sugar until visibly pale and fluffy, several minutes with a mixer, and add the eggs one at a time so the batter never breaks. The baking powder works alongside the air you beat in here.
- Eggs and milkUse large eggs at room temperature. Cold eggs added to creamed shortening will curdle the mixture; if it does split, sift in a spoonful of the measured flour to bring it back.
- FlavoringFor the mace-and-vanilla version use about 1/4 teaspoon ground mace with a teaspoon of vanilla. Sift the mace with the dry ingredients rather than adding it at the end.
- Yield and keepingOne loaf, roughly 10 to 12 slices. Wrapped well it should keep for several days at room temperature.