Pound" cakes got their name because the traditional American pound cake recipe called for one pound of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs. Pound cake can be sliced and toasted,and topped with strawberries or eaten with ice cream and chocolate syrup laced on it. Either way, they make a delicious desert.

Ingredients

1 lb. butter
1 lb. sugar
10 egg yolks
10 egg whites
1 lb. flour
1/2 teaspoon mace
2 tablespoons brandy

[edit] Steps

Measure dry ingredients.
Break each egg and toss into a bowl. Separate them one at a time, to make sure that each are good and do not have blood in the yolks. Separate yolks from whites.
Cream the butter in a bowl by working or smashing it with a wooden spoon until it soft and of a creamy consistency. Gradually add sugar and continue to mix.
Add yolks of eggs beaten until thick and lemon-colored, whites of eggs beaten until stiff and dry, flour, mace, and brandy.
Beat vigorously five minutes.
Bake in a deep pan one hour and fifteen minutes in a slow oven (250-300 degrees Fahrenheit); or if to be used for fancy ornamented cakes, bake thirty to thirty-five minutes in a dripping-pan.

[edit]Tips

In cake making the best ingredients are essential. Best tub butter, fine granulated sugar, fresh eggs, and pastry flour are essentials for good cake. Great care must be taken in measuring and combining ingredients.
Pans must be properly greased.
Pastry flour contains more starch and less gluten than bread flour, therefore makes a lighter, more tender cake.
Flour differs greatly in thickening properties; for this reason it is always good when using a new bag to try a small cake, as the amount of flour given may not make the perfect loaf. In winter, cake may be made of less flour than in summer.
If all the ingredients are ready ahead of time, the mixing will be finished more quickly.
If butter is very hard, allow it to stand a short time in a warm room. This makes it much easier to measure and cream. If you don't have time to do this, then warm the butter in the microwave for ten seconds.

[edit]Warnings

Do not use coarse granulated sugar; this will give the cake a coarse texture and hard crust.
Watch the cake during baking. Make sure that heat is regulated.
Do not stir the cake after the final beating.