Pound Cake: Created in Europe, Rooted in the South

      

           Pound cakes have long been a southern staple. The recipe my family uses has been handed down for 100 years. The reason that it’s called pound cake is because the original recipe called for a pound of each ingredient. This made a huge cake that was able to serve multiple families. The cake itself is actually a British creation better known as sponge cake, but it is the Southern version of it that has been a source of debate for centuries. The first known cookbook written by an African American, Abbie Fisher, contained 2 recipes of the popular dessert! It was called What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking (Stradley).

            This recipe is over a hundred years old and has been handed down in our family from my grandmother, Ida Milton Stewart Webb, who was born in Birmingham, AL in 1887. Ida's father, Jack Stewart, developed an inflammation of the lungs (probably emphysema) which the doctor blamed on Birmingham's sooty air. A repairing lease was recommended in the country, and the family moved from Birmingham to Atmore when Grandmother Ida was a girl. The sideboard with the marble top in our dining room came from Birmingham, and still has soot on the back!  Jack died in Atmore not long after they moved, leaving his wife, Abbie McQueen Stewart, alone and with no means of support. Abbie took in boarders and ran a millinery shop, making hats for women, to put food on the table for her two young girls. The dining room table in our house, which lets out to 22 feet in length when all the leaves are in it, is from Abbie Stewart's boarding house in Atmore. This pound cake recipe was frequently served to boarders as Sunday dessert, along with fresh berries and cream.

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened to room temp.

5 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Measure 2 cups sugar into a bowl. Sift the sugar three times on wax paper. Beat butter and sugar together in large bowl until creamy. In a separate bowl, beat the 5 eggs until they are light and frothy.

Measure 2 cups of flour. Sift flour three times. (Measure and THEN sift!) 

Add beaten eggs and sifted flour to creamed butter and sugar, alternating, until the mixture is beaten and the flour and the eggs are all added. Add the vanilla and beat thoroughly.

Grease tube pan on all sides and down the middle tube, then dust with flour. (I use about 1/4 cup flour to dust the pan) Shake flour all around the greased pan until all sides are coated, and knock the extra flour into the sink or garbage. 

Add creamed cake mixture to the pan and shake it gently until it is evenly dispersed. 

Bake in a COLD oven at 325 degrees for one hour. DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN. Put the cake in the cold oven and turn it on. This is what makes the yummy crust.

When cake is done, rest the cake pan on a cookie rack or trivet for 30 minutes and then remove cake from pan and cool completely.

References:

Stradley, Linda. "Pound Cake - History of Pound Cake." Pound Cake History, Whats Cooking America. What's Cooking America©, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.

and my mother!