Not if you put frosting on it. Then it’s just a somewhat denser dessert cake.
Regardless, it’s still poundcake without the frosting (and that’s the typical type of pound cake we had around the house.) And I still would have been disappointed. Imagine going to a birthday party and being served frosted poundcake as the “cake.” YMMV.
I’m certain i have been served frosted pound cake for dessert. Vastly better mileage apparently.
I’m not saying it doesn’t get served for dessert. I’ve been served zucchini bread and banana bread for dessert, too. And none of that helps with establishing our dichotomy here. For me, pound cake is more like zucchini bread and banana bread than it is prototypical “cake,” but is called “cake” rather than “bread.” “Banana bread” is as much “breakfast food” to me as “pound cake” is.
Bananas were not available in the UK during WWII. The refrigerator ships that transported them were needed for the war effort. In fact, desperate housewives made “mock bananas” out of parsnips.
You and I have both posted about the scientific reasons why one is a (quick) bread and the other a cake, but clearly, it’s more fun to speculate. 
About bananas being hard to get during WWII, my father said that the grocer used to come up to his mom, at the store, and ask in a low voice, “Want some bananas?” He didn’t get enough for all customers, so he’d favor some. Twinkies used to have banana cream but during the war they had to go to plain vanilla, and stayed that way after rationing ended.
I’ve never seen frosting on a banana bread. I’ve never seen carrot cake without frosting.
And I also usually eat banana bread like a slice of bread, buttered, in my hand.
Guess I think the carrot cake/banana bread divide is fine with me!
I added a lot more sugar to cup cakes. Of course, i also don’t eat commercial muffins because they are too damn sweet…
Mmmm, i do that, too. Good point.
Huh. Sara Lee pound cake was a fairly common dessert after supper in my household, and we all liked it. And, to return to the historical argument, which i find persuasive (after all, we ride a bicycle and drive a car, because that’s what we did with horses in a similar transportation mode), i understand that pound cake is the culinary ancestor of the common yellow cake, which is unambiguously cake.
Less talking and more baking, and more shipping said baking to me, would be appreciated.
We only had pound cake for dessert if it either had strawberries and whipped cream or ice cream and chocolate sauce on it.
You may have called the same product others sold as biscotti mandelbrot but while they are very similar they are different. The taxonomy is calling it a bread vs a cookie. The language is immaterial to that.
I looked up “breakfast cakes” on google and at least several pages and several lists in I haven’t found pound cake. Searching for “pound cake breakfast” I can find some recipes for pound cakes intended for breakfast (like this site), but even they clearly describe pound cake primarily as a beloved dessert staple, especially at Southern church potlucks, holiday gatherings, and luncheons. Pound cake is a rock standard dessert that can be served at breakfast (although personally I’ve never experienced other than as a dessert and have never seen it at breakfast). YMMV.
It also must be noted that pound cake’s origin was a very moist dense product with no leavening agent - called a pound cake because the recipe called for a pound each of sugar, flour, butter, and eggs. That’s a sweet rich moist dense product by cake standards, very far removed from the overlap of bread/cake.
I’d be disappointed with apple pie as dessert for a birthday party. And I love apple pie.
Correct. Carrot cakes were popularized in the UK during WWII (as a means to have a sweet dessert that did need as much precious added sugar or fruits). Not “banana bread”.
Banana bread was popularized in the US during the depression. Details were at the link I provided but I can quote them for convenience.
Is pound cake for breakfast a regional thing? I’ve never seen that before. I have many recipes for pound cakes that are definitely dessert, not breakfast. The only similarity to quickbreads is that sometimes pound cake is baked in loaf pans because it’s too dense to bake all the way through in cake pans.
I’ve never seen that sort of cheesecake. There are two types of cheesecake that are familiar to me ( and I bake both types) - but neither has a pastry crust ( or really any crust ) and both are baked in springform pans, not pie pans.
I’ve sometimes seen recipes for ricotta cheesecake calling for a pastry base.
FWIW, in my family, during the 1960s, we bought a lot of Sara Lee cakes in the foil pans.
I didn’t understand why my grandparents always bought the Sara Lee banana cake instead of the Sara Lee chocolate cake…until I tried it. It was excellent–largely due to the delicious frosting. The cake was also obviously cake-textured (seemingly made with white flour) and not at all bread-like. Please note that it was advertised as banana cake and not banana bread:
Over the decades since then, I have tried many kinds of so-called “banana bread.” They are usually very dense, dark and whole-wheat-y, and are either lacking in frosting, or are glazed/iced like gingerbread (both of these “breads” being incredibly sweet).
ETA-- When the gingerbread was in cake form, it was confusingly called “gingerbread cake”:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Betty-Crocker-Gingerbread-Cake-and-Cookie-Mix-14-5-oz/10311559?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=2922&adid=2222222227710311559_117755028669_12420145346&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=501107745824&wl4=pla-293946777986&wl5=9030262&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=10311559&wl13=2922&veh=sem_LIA&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuJXwtp7g9gIVxyCtBh2DuA5GEAQYASABEgKnTvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
I’ll fucking Mutiny if you bring up Breadfruit!