I have to say in the world of cakes, the pound cake and more specifically, the chocolate chip pound cake is my number one favorite cake in the world.

Where did the pound cake come from?

A pound cake is a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Pound cakes are generally baked in either a loaf pan or a Bundt mold. They are sometimes served either dusted with powdered sugar, lightly glazed, or with a coat of icing.

It is believed that the pound cake is of northern European origin that dates back to the early 1700s. A recipe for pound cake is in the first U.S. cookbook, American Cookery, which was published in 1796.

Over time the ingredients for pound cake changed. Eliza Leslie, who wrote the 1851 edition of Direction for Cookery, used 10 eggs, beat them as lightly as possible, mixed them with a pound of flour, then added the juice of two lemons or three large oranges. This changed the flavor and texture of the cake. In the 2008 issue of Saveur, James Villas wrote that cake flour would not work in place of all-purpose flour because it lacks the strength to support the heavy batter.

An early variation on this cake replaced some of the flour with cornmeal made from dried corn (maize), which was then called Indian meal. A recipe for Indian pound cake was first published in 1828 by Eliza Leslie and later included in The Indian Meal Book, which was published in London in 1846, when people in Ireland were looking for alternatives to expensive wheat flour.

What kinds of pound cakes are there?

There are numerous variations on the traditional pound cake, with certain countries and regions having distinctive styles. These can include the addition of flavoring agents (such as vanilla extract or almond extract) or dried fruit (such as currants or dried cranberries), as well as alterations to the original recipe to change the characteristics of the resulting pound cake. For instance, baking soda or baking powder may be incorporated to induce leavening during baking, resulting in a less dense pound cake. A cooking oil (typically a vegetable oil) is sometimes substituted for some or all of the butter, which is intended to produce a moister cake. Sour cream pound cake is a popular variation in the United States, which involves the substitution of sour cream for some of the butter, which also is intended to produce a moister cake with a tangy flavor. Some of these variations may drastically change the texture and flavor of the pound cake, but the name pound cake is often still used. Some of the variations are described below.

French style In France, the pound cake is well known. The name of the pound cake "quatre-quarts", means four quarters. There are equal weights in each of the four quarters. In tradition, the popular cake of the French region of Brittany, as its name implies, uses the same quantity of the four ingredients, but with no added fruit of any kind. However, the Caribbean parts of the world that speak French traditionally add rum to the ingredients for Christmas Eve or even mashed bananas for extra moisture. In some cases, the French might have beaten egg whites instead of whole eggs to lighten the batter. Other variants include adding chocolate or lemon juice for flavor.

Mexican style In Mexico, the pound cake is called panqué. The basic recipe of Mexican panqué is much like the traditional U.S. recipe. Most common variants are panqué con nueces (pound cake with walnuts)[3] and panqué con pasas (pound cake with raisins).[4]

Colombian and Venezuelan style Ponqué is the Colombian and Venezuelan version of the pound cake: the term ponqué is itself a Spanish phonetic approximation of pound-cake. The ponqué is essentially a wine-drenched cake with a cream or sugar coating, and it is very popular at birthdays, weddings and other social celebrations.

German style

Traditional German Osterlamm which often is made of Eischwerteig mit Fett The German term Rührkuchen (mixed-batter cake) refers to any kind of cake where a batter is made by mixing flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and often milk. The concept of the first four ingredients having equal proportions is not common, but, nevertheless, this style of cake batter forms the basis of many popular cake recipes. With the simple addition of nuts, cocoa, dried fruits and alcohols, and the use of different shapes and sizes of tins, a wide variety of traditional German cakes are made. For example, this dough or a minor variation of it is often used to make cakes made in a loaf tin (Orangenkuchen - orange cake; Nusskuchen- hazelnut cake), marbled cakes in a bundt tin (Marmorkuchen ) and other flavor combinations in shaped tins (Falscher Rehrücken - fake venison saddle with bitter chocolate and almonds,[5] Osterlamm - Easter Lamb with vanilla and rum[6]).

In the technical language of professional baking, these recipes are classified as Eischwerteig mit Fett ("egg-heavy batter with shortening"). For example, in a German cooks' vocational school book from the 1980s the basic recipe for such a cake baked in a 26 cm (10") spring form tin is given as four eggs, 3 egg-weights of butter, 4 egg-weights of sugar, three egg weights of flour and one egg-weight of starch.[5] If you add it all up, it is close to the English pound of each and the French four equal quarters.

Who likes to eat poundcake?

This guy, right here.

Driving to get some of mom's cake.

This is a picture of me that I keep in my wallet that reminds me just how much I love pound cake. This picture is from 2001. I don't want to bore you with more pictures of me but suffice it to say, anytime I want to eat pound cake I take a picture of it just so I can remember what I looked like before eating.

Can you please just tell me the recipe?

Nope, not yet. First, I want to tell you about the farm I go to that provides fresh eggs and butter.

Whenever I need to buy eggs and butter in order to make my pound cake, I go to Scrollington Farms. Their mission is to help extend the length of this food blog post by giving me, the author, something to discuss.

The first time I went to the farm, I was shocked to see massage tables for chickens. Twice a day, the chicken's receive full body massages. Tim, the farmer, believes that the best eggs are produced by chicken's that have zero-stress.

Mabel the chicken after her massage.

It's not just the chicken's either. In order to have the best tasting milk, Tim will ship in daily a group of preschool children to run around and interact with the animals. This triggers a nurturing hormone in the cows which helps to provide more flavorful milk.

Finally, you've reach the bottom of the page

Here's the recipe. I'm not even going to trick you by writing some more stuff. You've been with me through all of these words. You’ve earned your right to see the pound cake recipe. If you like this recipe, why don't you throw it into the recipe app ClipDish? That way, the next time you need to get to it, you don't have to

• remember where you saw it
• scroll through all of this again

Happy baking!