pound cake

noun

A dense yellow cake, the traditional recipe for which consists of equal quantities (nominally one pound) of butter, eggs, flour, and sugar.

“She's a cute little pound cake.”

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounpound cake (countable and uncountable, plural pound cakes)

plural pound cakes · alternative poundcake

  1. UScountableuncountableA dense yellow cake, the traditional recipe for which consists of equal quantities (nominally one pound) of butter, eggs, flour, and sugar.

    Satisfied her aunt had things under control, Addy put on the coffee and sliced and arranged the pound cake on a cookie sheet.

    2011, Lexi George, Demon Hunting in Dixie, unnumbered page
    2 more examples

    But when I got to Anita Bryant′s pound cake, I stopped looking. Her recipe is my favorite so far. The cream isn′t quite authentic—real pound cakes are supposed to contain only butter, sugar, eggs and flour—but it does make the cake′s texture meltier.

    1993, Ann Hodgman, Beat This! Cookbook, published 1999, page 166

    Pound cakes, butter cakes with a tender fine crumb, are English in origin. In the 1700s and 1800s, the basic cake formula was based on the pound cake—butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in equal proportions by weight, with no chemical leavening added.

    2002, Greg Patent, Baking in America, page 159
  2. countableslanguncountableA term of attraction or desire.

    She's a cute little pound cake.

  3. countableslanguncountableA butt cheek.

Origin

From pound (“unit of weight”) + cake.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 磅蛋糕
  • 磅蛋糕 (bàng dàngāo)dense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Danish pund-til-pund-kage
  • pund-til-pund-kagedense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
French quatre-quarts
  • quatre-quartsdense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
German Rührkuchen
  • Rührkuchendense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Hebrew עוּגַת פָּאוּנְד
  • עוּגַת פָּאוּנְד (ugát páund)dense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Icelandic sandkaka
  • sandkakadense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Italian torta quattro quarti
  • torta quattro quartidense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Japanese パウンドケーキ
  • パウンドケーキ (paundo kēki)dense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Korean 파운드 케이크
  • 파운드 케이크 (paundeu keikeu)dense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Persian کیک پوند
  • کیک پوند (keyk pund)dense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Polish babka piaskowa
  • babka piaskowadense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Russian фу́нтовый кекс
  • фу́нтовый кекс (fúntovyj keks)dense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Spanish panqué, queque
  • panquédense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
  • quequedense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
  • ponquédense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Welsh teisen driphwys
  • teisen driphwysdense yellow cake made from equal quantities of butter, eggs, flour and sugar
Cite this entry
APA

pound cake. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pound%20cake

MLA

“pound cake.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pound%20cake. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pound cake,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pound%20cake.

Source: pound cake on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.