Pound cake is a British dessert consisting of one pound of each of the following ingredients: flour, butter, sugar, and eggs, hence the name. There is no leavening agent used in the preparation, except the air that is whipped into the batter. It dates back to the early 1700s, and because many people didn't know how to read, the simple convention made it quite easy to remember the recipe.

By the 1800s, the recipes began to deviate from the original, and the ingredients were used in smaller quantities, resulting in a lighter, smaller cake, whereas the original was very big and could feed a large number of people. Today, people use leaveners to make it even less dense, while some cooks like to add chocolate or orange zest in order to enhance its flavors.

There are also numerous variations of pound cake across the world, in countries such as the United States of America, France (quatre quarts), Mexico, and Germany.