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Dessert

Cold Water Cake

A spiced raisin cake baked with brown sugar, butter, eggs, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cold Water Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter until smooth.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Stir in the cold water.

Make the batter

  1. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  2. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  3. Mix until just combined.

  4. Fold in the chopped raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Add structure and binding, helping the batter hold together as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Mix until just combined. Once flour is hydrated, gluten develops with further mixing, which can make the cake tough and dense. Stopping as soon as the flour is incorporated keeps the crumb tender.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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