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How Did Pound Cake Get Its Name?

This iconic cake was actually a British classic before it was an American one.

ByMarla Mackoul|
Even if you grew up eating pound cake, you may be less familiar with its origin story.
Even if you grew up eating pound cake, you may be less familiar with its origin story. | MelindaChan/GettyImages

Pound cake, a spongy confection often baked in a loaf or bundt pan, is beloved in the South. It can be flavored with cream cheese, lemon, and sour cream, making for a tangy, not-too-sweet alternative to classic baked goods like cookies or cupcakes. 

But unlike with many other cakes (think chocolate, vanilla, and carrot), it’s not immediately clear what a pound cake tastes like from its name alone. You may assume that the cake got its name because it weighs a pound. If you look at the history of the dessert, however, you’ll see that’s not actually the case. 

Pound cakes originated in England in the 1700s. They were called that because the very first pound cakes were massive; they used one pound each of eggs, flour, sugar, and butter, and would’ve been able to feed multiple families. Leaveners (like baking soda, baking powder, yeast, or cream of tartar) were not used. Instead, air was whipped into the batter.

The recipe’s simplicity was key to its popularity. At the time, much of the population couldn’t read or write, so most information was spread by word of mouth. The 1:1:1:1 formula for pound cake ingredients was easy to remember, and scaling it up or down was simple. Instead of having to do mental math for each ingredient, bakers only had to do it once; halving the recipe, for example, would require half a pound each of eggs, flour, sugar, and butter. All four of those ingredients were fairly inexpensive, making it a great staple for the average household.

Pound cake quickly spread to the American colonies, and in 1796, it appeared in Amelia Simmons’s American Cooking—the first cookbook published by an American. It seems that by the 1800s, the cake was already popular in the South. Mary Randolf published a classic version in her 1824 cookbook, The Virginia Housewife. For 1881’s What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Abby Fisher adapted the cake to include yeast and whipped egg whites.

Nowadays, pound cake is an iconic component of the Southern table. It’s also rarely made with four pounds of ingredients today—which is good news if you don’t have a whole village to feed.

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