Difference between pound cake and shortened cake?

Answer 1

Pound cake is a rich, dense cake, not too sweet, so named because it was once made with a pound of butter, pound of flour, pound of sugar. It is made like a cake, by mixing the ingredients well to make a smooth batter. It is baked in a cake pan. The eggs and butter make it yellow. Pound cake stands on its own and requires no icing or accompaniment.

Shortcake is a rich ("short"), slightly sweet biscuit. It is made like a drop biscuit, by cutting fat into the dry ingredients and then mixing the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients only until the dry ingredients are moistened, without overworking the dough. It is shaped by dropping spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, rolling out and cutting into shapes, or fitting into a cake pan. It is paler in color than pound cake, containing less butter and fewer eggs. I think shortcake is usually meant to be served with something else, like berries and cream.

Sometimes grocery stores sell something they call shortcake, meant to be served with berries, that is really sponge cake. Sponge cake is a light, spongy, yellow cake leavened with lots of eggs and no other fat. Real shortcake is so easy and quick to make that you should never bother with this stale cellophane-wrapped stuff!

There is a good shortcake recipe in the original Joy of Cooking, and another good one (the one I use) in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Berry season is coming on so start practicing, now! First prepare (slice or MASH) and sugar the berries, and let them stand (juices will flow) while you get the shortcake ready to bake. Cut the fat into the flour/sugar in your Cuisinart. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl. Butter the pan. Chill the cream and bowl and beaters in the fridge. Do all this before dinner. Then, 15 minutes before you want to serve dessert, preheat the oven (the temp is high, 400 or 450), quickly mix wet into dry ingredients, put dough in pan or on baking sheet, pop in oven. While the shortcake is baking, whip and slightly sweeten the cream. Split the still-hot shortcake, spoon juicy berries over the bottom layer, top with whipped cream, add the second layer of cake, top that with whipped cream and a few juicy berries, and serve IMMEDIATELY. Small individual cakes (dough is an inch thick, cut into rounds with a glass) work better than one large one because you can get the dessert to the dessert eater quickly, while the components are still hot and cold. And cutting a large shortcake layered with berries and whipped cream is kind of a mess.