Old-time pound cake recipes often called one pound each of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. However, a 1920 promotional cookbook for Snowdrift shortening contained a recipe for “Modern” Pound Cake that called for Snowdrift instead of butter; and didn’t call for equal proportions of the other ingredients.
The recipe may not be a traditional pound cake recipe – though the use of shortening doesn’t exactly seem modern either – but, in any case, “Modern” Pound Cake turned out wonderfully. The cake is moist and rich, with a hint of lemon.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Modern Pound Cake
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon mace (optional)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a loaf pan. Put sugar and shortening in a mixing bowl; beat until combined. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts, milk, baking powder, salt, and (if desired) mace; beat until combined. Add flour and beat until well blended. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
A Hundred Years Ago 
The use of shortening in this rather than butter seemed a bit odd, until I remembered that my favorite pumpkin bread recipe uses Crisco as the shortening, and it’s just fabulous. I’ve tucked this recipe away to try, as well.
I think that you’d like this recipe. It’s very tasty.
Hungry for some pound cake now. My mom used to make it on occasion.
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some good food memories.
The cake looks so good. I never knew why it was called pound cake. I liked the term “cupfuls”.
Darn! Now I need to why. I’m sure it was not to convey gaining a pound if eaten.
What a fun alternate interpretation of how pound cakes got their name! 🙂
It’s fascinating how some cooking terms have changed across the years.
Would make a great base for strawberry shortcake.
This cake would be great with strawberries.
I like pound cake. Don’t care how it is described. Saving this recipe. Thanks.
I think that you’d enjoy this recipe.
Mother had a recipe called 1-2-3-4 cake that referenced the shortening, sugar, flour, and eggs (not sure of the order, but I don’t recall which was which) that was a pound cake. I always loved it, and made it a lot myself as an adult. It had a glaze made from orange juice and sugar. I still have the recipe in my handwritten cook book from Home Ec. She always made her baked items with shortening and not butter–but of course it was Crisco–the pure all vegetable shortening for modern cooks. 🙂
mmm. . . An icing glaze would be a nice addition to this recipe. Many mid-20th century recipes called for shortening. Baked goods made using shortening have a nice texture and flavor.
I love pound cake. Something to bake while social distancing! I hope I have all the ingredients…😬
You should give this recipe a try. It’s easy to make.
I’m planning on it. Just printed it out!
Ha! Perfect. I have some butter flavored Crisco left over from Christmas cookies… I know what I’m doing this week!!
Have fun baking! I think that you’ll enjoy this recipe.
Looks wonderful and easy enough for me….
Will definitely try this one.
I think that you’ll be pleased with this recipe.
Love pound cake,only I use rum in mine along with butter as hubby isn’t keen on me using shortening or lemon flavoring.
Your recipe sounds wonderful.
I love pound cake. This would be lovely with a little lemon curd and berries on top!
mmm. . . this pound cake would be lovely with lemon curd and berries on top.
It looks so good!
I hope you and your are doing well.
It’s tasty. I’m doing okay. I hope that you are also doing well during these challenging times.
Glad to hear that. Thank you, we’re doing well too. ❤
I think I would like the lemon.. maybe some lemon rind.. 😉
This recipe would be good with some lemon rind added.
Any idea why the servings, preptime, and difficulty were converted into some maybe Slavic language? A peculiar form of hacking? This is what it looked like:
Sajian: 6 – 8
Waktu: 1 hour 15 minutes
Kesulitan: easy
Cetak
The rest of the recipe and prose was in plain English – weird, huh?
This is really strange. The servings, prep time, etc. are all in English on my computer. I wonder what other readers are seeing.
The texture on this looks beautiful!
It has a lovely texture.
I think I’ll stick with my grandmother’s recipe.
It sounds like your grandmother had a wonderful pound cake recipe.
I’ve saved this one to try. Somethings are timeless and always please.
I agree – some foods are timeless.
This sounds wonderful!
It’s yummy.
I’ve never heard of snowdrift before!
The brand is long gone. Any shortening would work just fine in this recipe.
Looks completely scrumptious. I have no idea what snowdrift is, however. Never even heard of it.
Just like now, brands come and go. So many brands, including Snowdrift shortening, have vanished across the years.
Ah so it’s shortening. Now I know. Thank you!
I love pound cake and make it every year when fresh strawberries are in season. Thanks for this “modern” recipe. Mine uses butter. The amount of liquid in this recipe seems so low! I will give it a try.
The four eggs provided much of the needed liquid. The batter was fairly thick, but it seemed like the amount of liquid called for was correct.
This has me wishing I had bought flour before it became sold out in all the stores. It looks lovely.xxx
It is very nice. Hopefully flour will be back in the stores soon.
I’ve been making a one-step pound cake for 40+ years. Everything goes in at once and you use either yogurt or sour cream…always good, other than once using low fat yogurt, that was awful, and dry!
mmm. . . your pound cake recipe sounds sounds like a winner. I have a regular cake recipe that calls for sour cream that I really like.
The Snowdrift threw me a bit. I ended up researching lard, butter, hydrogenation, and trans fats. I learned more about cooking today than planned. Thanks for the recipe!
I know that Snowdrift was made from cottonseed. It’s fascinating how highly processed shortenings were considered modern a hundred years ago.
Great idea, this cake looks yummy!! 🙂
It’s tasty.
I love pound cakes🎂. Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome. This is a nice pound cake recipe.
It looks delicious and tasty! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
I think that you’ll like it.
I like to pair it with a cup of tea!
It would be perfect with tea.