For the third year, the pound cake contest sponsored by the Mathews May Faire Celebration, in which 11 pound cakes were entered, proved just how very different pound cakes can be.
The contest had four winners this year. Janet Burgess won first place, with Mary Digges taking second and Paul Hyer third. Cheryl Dale received the presentation award.
What is a pound cake? That’s probably the question most often asked about cakes. The name originated to describe a cake made with a pound each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs and sugar. However, since the first pound cake made its debut in the early 1400s from the oven of Italian bakers, many changes and alterations to this basic recipe, which was introduced to this country by our English ancestors, have occurred. It’s still called a pound cake and the entries in the May Faire contest represented those changes.
What actually divides a pound cake from a butter cake is the fact that a true pound cake contains no leavenings (b...