pound cake

• poundcake

From pound (unit of weight) + cake.

pound cake (countable and uncountable, plural pound cakes)

1. (US) A dense yellow cake, the traditional recipe for which consists of equal quantities (nominally one pound) of butter, eggs, flour, and sugar.
   • 1993, Ann Hodgman, Beat This! Cookbook, published 1999, page 166:

     But when I got to Anita Bryant′s pound cake, I stopped looking. Her recipe is my favorite so far. The cream isn′t quite authentic—real pound cakes are supposed to contain only butter, sugar, eggs and flour—but it does make the cake′s texture meltier.

   • 2002, Greg Patent, Baking in America, page 159:

     Pound cakes, butter cakes with a tender fine crumb, are English in origin. In the 1700s and 1800s, the basic cake formula was based on the pound cake—butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in equal proportions by weight, with no chemical leavening added.

   • 2011, Lexi George, Demon Hunting in Dixie, page unnumbered:

     Satisfied her aunt had things under control, Addy put on the coffee and sliced and arranged the pound cake on a cookie sheet.

• sponge cake