Skip to main content
Dessert

Golden Loaf Sugar

A sweet cake made with egg yolks, sugar, butter, milk, water, pastry flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Golden Loaf Sugar

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and mix well.

  3. Beat the egg yolks until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the cream of tartar to the egg yolks and beat until very light.

  5. Combine the egg mixture with the butter mixture and stir thoroughly.

  6. Alternate adding the milk, flour, water, and vanilla extract, mixing well after each addition.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a cake pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 50 minutes.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Add richness and structure, and help the batter set as it bakes.
Pastry flour
Provides the main structure of the cake crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the beaten yolks, helping them hold their volume and lightness.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter bake to a golden color.

The step that matters

Beating the egg yolks with cream of tartar until very light. Beating incorporates air that gives the cake its lift, and cream of tartar helps stabilize that foam. Under-beating leaves the cake dense, while the batter should be mixed gently once the flour is added to avoid toughening it.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes