pound cake a cake of the creamed type, is so named because the recipe calls for an equal weight of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs; in old recipes, a pound of each, making a large, rich cake. Beaten egg is relied on to raise the cake. Sometimes the eggs are separated, the whites beaten separately and folded in just before baking to enhance their raising power.

Pound cake has been favoured in both Britain and the USA for over two centuries. Recipes for it were already current early in the 18th century, for example that given by Richard Bradley (1736).