Pound cake

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Pound cake (in: The pride of the household; the bakers' complete management - 1900, p. 92)

Pound cake is an originally British sponge cake that was probably invented around 1600. The name is derived from the proportion of ingredients: a pound each (English: pound ) flour, sugar, butter and eggs. The recipe and the term were adopted in German as pound cake , also known as old German sponge cake . The French Quatre-quarts and the German Eischwerkuchen follow the same principle . European emigrants also carried the recipe to the USA.

history

Pound cakes used to be large "dense" cakes that were very moist due to their composition and lasted for a long time at room temperature. In Great Britain, historical recipe books at the turn of the 17th century testify to the tradition of pound cakes. London cookbooks have been translated into German and the pound cake was to the German as pound cake adapted.

In the 18th century the pound cake, which was actually a small plum cake without fruit, came to the USA from England. The American Cookery book from 1796 contains the first recipe written by an American for a classic of American cuisine - the poundcake. Bee Wilson shows in the example of the Fork: A History of cooking and tools of eating that in America, measuring with cups ( cups ) instead was not consistent with a kitchen scale to 1796, and that the poundcake, even long after the cups enforced had, is popular.

In 1891 Fanny Lemira Gilette dedicated the White House cookbook to the presidents' wives . The 1899 edition, translated into German, contains four pound cake recipes: the English, the simple and one pound cake each with coconut or citronat; where you can read the recipe for a simple pound cake :

"This is the well-known recipe our mothers used, and the cake made afterwards can be kept for weeks in an earthen pot, well covered, and if you cover it with brandy-dipped writing paper before covering."

- FLGilette : The White House Cookbook

preparation

The recipe hasn't changed over the centuries: a pound cake is made from equal parts flour, sugar, butter and eggs. Dried fruits or cocoa can be added as desired . The production used to be an intensive job, as the dough had to be beaten with a wooden spoon for at least an hour. No chemical leavening agent is used in a real pound cake . Even when Quatre-quarts and Eischwerkuchen the main ingredients are measured out in equal parts according to the weight of eggs used.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Greg Patent: Pound cake . In: Darra Goldstein (Ed.): The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets . Oxford University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-931362-4 ( google.de [accessed March 22, 2019]).
  2. ^ Isabella Moore, The Useful and Entertaining Family Miscellany: Containing the Complete English Housekeeper's Companion. Thomas Palmer, London 1766, p. 40 ( google.de [accessed on March 22, 2019]).
  3. ^ Francis Collingwood, John Woollams: New Londner Kochbuch or general English kitchen landlord for town and country: containing complete instructions for the preparation of all kinds of food and table drinks, for table bakery, confectionery, for canning and pickling of fruits. FG Baumgärtner, 1794, p. 322 , accessed on March 22, 2019 .
  4. ^ Andrew F. Smith: The Early English Roots of American Cakes . Ed .: The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Oxford University Press, USA, 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-530796-2 ( google.de [accessed March 22, 2019]).
  5. ↑ Bee Wilson: Using the example of the fork: A history of cooking and eating tools . Suhrkamp Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-458-73882-4 ( google.de [accessed on March 22, 2019]).
  6. ↑ The pride of the household; the bakers' complete management . 1900, p. 92 ( archive.org [accessed March 22, 2019]).
  7. ↑ FL Gilette: Das Weisse Haus Kochbuch: a rich encyclopedia of useful instruction for the household, receipts for use in cooking, in the toilet and in the household: the correct form for menus, instructions for diners, etiquette at the table, health rules, nursing and other facts worth knowing . Ed .: Werner Company. New York: The Morning Journal, 1899, pp. 311-313 ( archive.org [accessed March 24, 2019]).
  8. ^ Teubner, Christian. Wolter, Annette: Baking pleasure like never before: the large GU picture baking book with the best baking ideas . Reprint of the original edition from 1984 edition. Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7742-5626-8 , pp. 225 .
  9. ↑ Roland Gööck: Eischwerkuchen equilibrium cake . In: The new big cookbook . Bertelsmann Verlag, Güthersloh, p. 434 .