that was baking powder- and i answered my own questions by searching gw for lb cake recipes most of these recipes have no baking powder.....

It is a dense cake.

Mine calls for 1 1/2 tsp.

I have 2 recipes....one calls for 1/4 tsp baking sods...but it also has sour cream.
The other has no leaven.

I also have a handful of recipes, most call for no leavening, loft is provided by beating the sugar/butter mixture for 4 or 5 minutes until "light", then beating in eggs one at a time, adding more air. some have small amounts of leavening, and I think both types of recipes are good.

Annie

Eggs will provide loft even without long beating....ever make popovers? or choux paste? or a Dutch pancake?

It depends on how you define "pound cake". Traditional quatre quarts (four quarters) pound cake has equal weights of flour, sugar, eggs and butter. Flavorings can be added, like a spoon of vanilla or orange, or even mixed in little bits and pieces, but it's meant to be plain and fairly dense. You do need to beat it hard to whip air in, and can also separate the eggs to whip the whites with a pinch of the sugar, then fold in the mix of the other parts carefully, for a lighter cake. The only liquid of any quantity in this kind of pound cake comes from the eggs.

In some parts of the USA, however, "pound cake" refers to what books usually call "butter cakes", which are plain ol' cakes of the kind one makes for frosted birthday cakes. Those have both eggs and baking powder, but have different proportions.

For myself, I prefer to talk about egg rising cakes (which includes sponge and angel) vs. baking powder cakes, because it's less confusing for me.

Baking powder cakes often have milk in them, and fewer eggs, and have all kinds of alternative liquids and fats, ranging for oil to yoghurt to applesauce. Because of the chemical leavener, heavier things can be incorporated.

well the pound cake was a success more so than i was expecting. it called for equal weights (converted to cups) of ingredients and 6 eggs and vanilla and 10 minutes at the mixer....which drove dh crazy he said i mixed it toooooo long, but the texture was great and actually i think i was just being anxious about it....he's getting a piece right now.......

Excellent! So good to hear that it came out well.

So, given that it was an egg rising pound cake, all that beating was necessary. That also explains the cake flour. Cake flour has significantly less protein in it than all purpose flour. One doesn't beat an AP flour, baking powder rising cake for a long time because it'll develop the gluten from the proteins and make it tough (read "knead" where you see "beat"). Cake flour lessens the amount of gluten that can develop. That's also why some recipes say corn starch--no gluten.

For a baking powder cake, cream the butter and sugar to incorporate as much air as possible, then just mix the dry and wet, and get it in the oven promptly before the baking powder discharges.