Though its name derives from a standard measure of ingredients (1 lb flour, 1 lb sugar, 1 lb butter), the pound cake is one of the most variable receipts (recipes) in American cookery.  Not unlike today, cooks from the late 18^th and early 19^th century seemed to prefer their own proportions of basic ingredients as well as spices and flavorings.  Family tradition, personal tastes,  geography, and socio-economic status all contributed to unique interpretations of this popular dessert.

Letitia Dalton Lynn, nicknamed “Lute,” who was born into the Gaines family on Eden’s Ridge in 1843, and whose ginger cakes we featured in a recent issue, included five receipts for pound cake in her handwritten cookbook.  Most of her receipts call for 1 lb flour, 1 lb sugar, and ¾ lb butter, but the number of eggs varies from 8 to 15! 

Below is one of Lute’s pound cake receipts, which she credits to a “Mrs. Ross.” Even with 8 eggs (rather than 15), this makes a good custardy cake, though with only nutmeg to add spice, it is rather plain. Alternately, Sarah Rutledge, author of The Carolina Housewife, a cookbook published in 1847, adds grated nutmeg as well as brandy and rosewater to her pound cake batter, resulting in a more complex flavor. (In early America, rosewater was used in baked goods much like  vanilla extract is today.) Mary Randolph, author of The Virginia Housewife, adds another popular flavoring of the time period: lemon.

Note that none of these receipts include chemical leaveners (saleratus, pearl ash, soda, etc); instead, they rely on beaten eggs to add lightness to the crumb. 

Inspired by Lute, Rutledge, Randolph, and other period sources, the Eden’s Ridge Hearth Cookery Society has created our own version of an early American pound cake. Instead of the “small tins” that Lute calls for, we generally use a redware turban pan, and we have reduced the amount of rosewater from the “glass” (¼ cup) called for by Rutledge to a teaspoon, as the flavor of rosewater can be overpowering to modern palates. (Too much and the cake will taste like soap!) We frequently make the cake with freshly churned butter, garnish it with edible spring herbs and flowers like violets, dianthus, and mint, and drizzle it with homemade strawberry syrup.

We make this pound cake every year at Exchange Place’s annual Spring Garden Fair (usually on Sunday so we can use the fresh butter we churned on Saturday). So, if you come to the event to shop for your plants, be sure to stop by the kitchen to learn more about this delicious dessert and other foods from the past!