Ingredients
1 lb butter
1 lb sugar (approx. 2« c)
1 lb eggs (approx. 10)
1 lb flour (approx. 3 c)
1 generous pinch of salt
1 juice and zest of 1 large
1 lemon (or 1 or 2 t lemon
1 juice)
Directions
Cream butter, then add sugar gradually till mix is smooth. Add eggs,
one at a time, stirring until fully absorbed into mixture. Add flour
gradually, stirring until fully absorbed. Stir in salt and lemon
juice and zest. Bake in well-greased angel-food cake tin for
90 minutes at 300ø F.
ICING
Cream 1 or more T butter with 1 1-lb box of powdered sugar. Add
butter as needed to absorb the sugar. Add juice and zest of 1 or 2
lemons, 1 at a time as needed to achieve spreading consistency. If
icing is still too thick, thin with heavy cream.
Source: Alice's Restaurant Cookbook, by Alice May Brock, Random
House, 1969.
PS: This makes a big cake which will keep much longer than I've ever
seen one last. It's also almost impossible to overbake. A couple
years ago I was making one as an Xmas gift for friends. I went to
bed, forgetting to remove the cake from the oven, and it baked all
night long. When I finally got it out of the oven (over 7 hours after
it went in) the cake was perfectly OK except for a suface layer about
«" deep that was a bit dry. I made another cake for the gift, but my
family gobbled the "mistake" in short order.
Servings: 8 servings
Pound Cake Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cake; Dessert
The History of Recipes
Transcribed cooking instructions as a concept can be found far back into distant history, in fact as far as ancient Egypt, and maybe even further. Interesting though that maybe, mostly, these ancient recipes were just primitive hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for meal preparation.
Fascinatingly, the most ancient recipe found, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are a few clay tablets in ancient Sumerian which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made those who drank it feel blissful. Progressing into The time of the roman empire around 25BC a roman called Apicius created some scripts showing how to cook the recipes prepared by wealthy Romans. He recounts how the meals were split into starters, main course and afters, something that is very familiar to us today. This early Roman chef recounts how the chefs of Roman times used a wide range of aromatic flavours, including some that we all recognise such as basil, fennel and parsley. As our culinary historical trip moves to more modern times we find two books which appeared in the 1300s - one book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another entitled `Curye on Inglish`. Although the titles sound familiar, they are not about the curry that appears on menues today, but rather descriptions of the types of meals enjoyed by the upper classes of that period. In the 15th century, people returning from the crusades brought back many new foods and herbs from the Middle-East, including spices such as coriander, basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new herbs and spices was responsible for an increase in manuscripts on cooking, some of which still exist in academic collections. Over the following few centuries, the powerful and rich strove to lay on the most exotic meals, and as a result chefs and their recipes were highly sought after. Even so, it was during the nineteenth century that cooking and recipe publications became really popular. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, devoted their lives to assembling, trying out, and recording recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. By the advent of the twentieth century, cookery publications are greatly in demand as a result of higher levels of literacy, more spare time and having more money to spend. The introduction of the TV brings us TV chefs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. Which brings us neatly up to date and the invention of the internet, allowing everyone to search through massive numbers of recipes such as those found on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Pound Cake recipe.
