The creation of a pound cake dates to the early 1700s, with the credit for its origin given to the British. It all began with a pound of each ingredient, eggs, sugar, butter and flour. No leaveners were used other than the air whipped into the batter. From the ingredients came the name. It was a heavy, heavy cake that would serve multiple families. Not until the 19th century were leaveners (baking soda/powder) added, making a much lighter cake. Using fruit also began.

In today’s world of pound cakes, bakers are creating their own recipes. Just name an edible ingredient and you can likely find it used in a pound cake. Nowadays, it doesn’t take a pound of each main ingredient, but a love for creating something delicious was certainly evident at the recently held Mathews May Faire Pound Cake Contest.

Seventeen cakes were entered and each was taste-tested by three judges. After much tasting and many discussions, they had to make the selections. This is not an easy task when a...