I read somewhere recently that recipes for pound cake appeared in cookbooks dating all the way back to the 1700’s, which made me wonder, how in the world did they ever make a decent one, without the benefit of electric mixers? Turns out they didn’t.
There is no fully formatted, printable, written recipe being published on Allrecipes for this experiment. I’m going to list the ingredients below, and you saw how I did it, but I highly recommend you use an electric mixer.
Classic Pound Cake (Makes one 9 x 5 inch loaf)
1/2 pound (1 cup) soft, room temp unsalted butter
1/2 pound (about 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) white granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla, optional
pinch of salt
4 large eggs or 1/2 pound by weight after cracking
1/2 pound (about 1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
– Bake at 350 F. for about 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
To become an official “Food Wisher” and read Chef John’s in-depth article about this F Pound Cake from the 1700’s, follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRIZtPl9nb9RiXc9btSTQNw/join
You can also find more of Chef John’s content on Allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/recipes/16791/everyday-cooking/special-collections/web-show-recipes/food-wishes/