“I’ll do almost anything for cake — even trample little children!” — Gayle King.
They say life is better with a slice of cake. A delightful dessert that boasts a rich, buttery, and tasty flavor, pound cake is an all-time favorite treat. This baked bundle of joy is versatile and comes in hundreds of flavors to delight all taste buds. A crowned star on Breadfast’s range of artisan bakeries, we had to dig into history to learn what makes this cake so special.
Pound Cake through history
Believed to be of Northern European origin from the early 1700s, the first pound cake recipe was found in the first U.S. Cookbook, ‘American Cookery’, published in 1796. Pound cake’s namesake originates from its recipe, which involves one pound of four ingredients; butter, flour, sugar, and eggs.
Numerous spins were made to the original classic pound cake recipe throughout history. In France, pound cakes are called ‘Quatre-quarts’ (four-fourths). Some classic French bakers use egg whites instead of whole eggs for a lighter fluffy batter, while the Caribbean-French-speaking countries like Guiana and Guadeloupe add rum and bananas to the batter for extra moisture.
In the U.S., butter is replaced with sour cream to add moisture and give the pound cake a tender texture without thinning the batter. ‘Panque’, the Latin American version of pound cake, is infused with walnuts, raisins, drenched in wine, and topped with a whipped cream or sugar coating. As for ‘rührkuchen’, the German pound cake, it has milk, nuts, dried fruits, or cocoa.
Despite the cultural and flavor variations – and the different nicknames between ‘yellow cake’, ‘madeira’, or ‘loaf cake’, the pound cake recipe is a baking heirloom that stood the test of time.
National Pound Cake Day
In the U.S., March 4th is officially named ‘National Pound Cake Day.’ Pound cake fans celebrate their love for the iconic dessert by baking hundreds of different variations, whereas others gather at home to bake pound cakes and post their best pound cake bakes on their social media accounts. In 2018, Bill Perkins released a song called ‘Pound Cake’ in honor of the fluffy and sweet dessert and the song is one of many songs released honoring the cake.
Breadfast Pound Cake: A star with many flavors
Aspiring to create the most delicious, light, and feathery pound cake that everyone loves, Breadfast perfected 4 different flavors and variations to the icon classic dessert. Breadfast pound cake range features vanilla, marble, chocolate, and cinnamon ginger. With a moist and fluffy texture that stays fresh for days, our chocolate pound cake is filled with delicious chocolate chips. Breadfast’s vanilla pound cake will surprise you with a sweet and smooth melt-in-your-mouth texture with every bite. Order your favorite Pound Cake from Breadfast and have it delivered straight to your door just in time for a sweet and delicious midday snack.
