How Exactly Did Pound Cake Get Its Name?

It may not be the flashiest dessert in the world, but it's hard to beat pound cake. The recipe only requires a handful of ingredients, making it a go-to choice for bakers everywhere. You can bake pound cake in a Bundt pan or buy it in a loaf from the supermarket. Dust it with sugar, smear it with frosting, and flavor it with vanilla, chocolate, or fruit. No matter how you slice it, the humble pound cake is there for you, in all its moist, tender glory. (And it'll likely stay with you for a while — those crumbs get everywhere.)

But why do they call it pound cake? Is it because the cake weighed a pound back whenever it got its name? Maybe it only cost a pound in British money? The truth is quite straightforward: pound cake got its name because it was originally made with a pound of each ingredient.

"The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy," a 1747 cookbook by Hannah Glasse that was immensely popular for over a century after publication, included a recipe for a dessert called "pound cake." It called for a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, and a pound of eggs. It may sound somewhat unintuitive to modern bakers, but it's important to remember this recipe was written at a time when most non-wealthy people — including people employed as cooks and bakers — couldn't read or write. A handy mnemonic device like the "pound cake" made it much easier to pass along from person to person.

And spread it did. The recipe showed up in an American cookbook, Amelia Simmons' "American Cookery," in 1796. The French developed their own variation, called "quatre-quarts," or "four quarters." Meanwhile, Mexico followed suit with panqué — a variation on pound cake that often includes cream cheese. But even after countless permutations and eventual mass production, the base remains the same: sugar, butter, flour, and eggs.