This particular challenge is all about the use of flowers in cooking! So how does a pound cake fulfill this requirement? Well, let me explain!
This isn’t any normal pound cake. This is Miss Amelia Simmon’s Pound Cake! And it has a special ingredient that makes it different from our modern day pound cake…. Rose Water!
Pound Cake
One pound sugar, one pound butter, one pound flour, one pound or ten eggs, rose water one gill, spices to your taste; watch it well, it will bake in a slow oven in 15 minutes.
Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery. (Hartford, 1796) Pg. 37
The wonderful thing about a pound cake recipe is that the title is very self explanatory, so measuring the main ingredients is very easy. A pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, a pound of eggs (in this case 10 eggs), along with spice and rose water to taste.
And, because each ingredient will vary in amounts, I went straight to my scale to make sure each ingredient equaled a pound. Like the flour pictured above! This scale is becoming one of my favorite kitchen tools!
Once I had turned the oven on to preheat to 350 degrees F, I combined the pound of butter with the pound of sugar.
I have had the privilege of running several foodways workshops and this receipt is one of my favorite to use. Not only does it supply a delicious sweet treat to the meal, but it also teaches everyone how to put together a basic cake batter, without leavening, and how to use a dutch oven for baking. And it is a very interactive recipe in which everyone needs to get involved with because the amount of time you need to beat the butter and sugar, and then the eggs with the beaten butter and sugar, is extensive. And by extensive, I mean your arm will feel like it wants to fall off. Hence why having many hands to do such a chore is a wonderful thing!
As you can see by the picture above! But, being as I was alone in the kitchen and had modern tools at my disposal….
… I ended up using this wonderful invention to make the cake light and airy!
So, for several minutes on high, I beat the sugar and butter together till it looked like thick whipped cream! And tasted just as sweet. It’s best to be careful here because if you beat the butter and sugar together for too long it will split. But this looks just about right.
Then, after cracking 10 eggs into a measuring cup, I beat the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture one at a time. Or two at a time if I poured too quickly.
Once the last egg was beaten in the mixture in the bowl was looking like a nice golden cake batter. And my hand only hurt slightly from several minutes of holding the electric hand mixer. If I had my stand mixer out from storage I think my hand wouldn’t have hurt at all! The wonder of technology!
So, to keep my pouring skills on point, I then added the flour in by thirds … kinda. I actually put in a third at the beginning, and then almost spilled the flour on the counter so the rest ended up in the bowl for the second beating. It’s hard to pour something like that one handed.
There! All the ingredients are in and beaten till nice a fluffy! And, I have to say, it looks very much like cake batter! Yay!
Now to add spice to taste (of which I went to my favorite 18th century spice trio: cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg), and the rose water. Now the rose water I have is an extract, so highly concentrated. The rose water that Amelia Simmons is describing is actual rose water, hence why the quantity is much larger. A gill is equal to about 1/2 a cup of liquid. So, knowing how strong it was, I added it to the small cap, and then used a few drops from that amount. That’s it! Anymore, and it just overpowers the dish rather than harmonizing with it.
I then buttered and floured my cake pans. These ones are the same ones I use when I’m baking with a dutch oven. And each pan can hold half the amount of the pound cake batter. So, when I do this for workshops, I divide the receipt in half so that there will be enough for one pan (which is all that will fit at a time in the dutch oven at a time). Hence why I call it the “Half-Pound Pound Cake”!
But please make sure to butter and flour your pans! The sugar in this batter will make it stick VERY easily and this prevents it from doing that. Just take softened butter and rub it around in the pan, and then put a little flour and shake the pan around till all the butter is coated with flour. Then dump the excess flour out in the trash. Easy!
Then I divided the batter evenly between the two pans. Well as even as possible.
And it was just enough for each pan! Minus a spoonful or two for tasting (Note: this has raw egg in it so do not eat the batter if you are not comfortable eating raw egg!)
Then, into the well preheated oven for an hour and 5 minutes! (I do not know what temperature a “slow” oven is in Amelia’s time, but it certainly is hotter than 350 degrees F.)
There they are! Nice and golden brown! You can check to make sure they are cooked through by poking them with toothpicks. If they come out clean they are done!
I’ve made this so many times I knew that I would love it! The interesting thing is that the rose water, which you’d think would make this taste alot like roses, changes in the cake and becomes almost like vanilla in flavoring. Hence why it was such a popular flavor for baked goods in the 18th century, when vanilla was VERY expensive and vanilla extract didn’t exist.
I highly recommend you try this receipt! It certainly has such a great flavor and texture. And it’s great with whip cream and strawberries!