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Dessert

Plain Cake

A simple cake made with barley flour, honey, milk, eggs, and leavening agents, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Plain Cake

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 ↓

Plain Cake

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. Heat honey, fat, and milk in a saucepan until blended.

  2. Add egg yolks and let the mixture cool.

  3. Sift in 2½ cups of barley flour, reserving ½ cup.

  4. Mix well, then add vanilla, baking soda, and baking powder along with the reserved flour.

  5. Fold in the well-beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Honey + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,262 recipes

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

  3. Honey + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Barley + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley flour
Provides the main structure of the cake crumb.
Honey
Adds sweetness, moisture, and helps the crust brown.
Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, and the yolks help bind and set the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the cake rise.
Fat
Tenderizes the crumb and adds richness.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, blended batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stir them in too vigorously and the air escapes, leaving a dense cake. Fold gently with a spatula, just until no white streaks remain.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, flour, honey, milk, egg):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, flour, honey, milk, egg. 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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