Skip to main content
Dessert

Queen Cakes

A sweet cake made with wholemeal flour, lard, sugar, golden syrup, milk, egg, vanilla or lemon essence, baking powder, and optional currants.

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 ↓

Queen Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. Rub the lard into the wholemeal until finely mixed.

  2. Add the baking powder.

  3. Beat the egg.

  4. Mix in the milk and golden syrup.

  5. Dissolve the sugar in the liquid mixture.

  6. Add the essence of vanilla or lemon.

  7. Combine all ingredients to form a smooth batter.

Bake

  1. Place a dessert spoonful of batter into well-greased small fluted patty pans.

  2. Bake for 10 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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

Wholemeal
Provides the flour structure that sets the crumb of the cakes.
Lard
Rubbed into the flour to add fat, giving a tender, short texture.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as the cakes set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown lightly at the edges.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid so the flour forms a smooth batter.

The step that matters

Combine all ingredients to form a smooth batter. Overmixing a flour batter develops gluten and toughens the crumb, while undermixing leaves dry pockets. Mixing just until smooth keeps the cakes tender and even.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup, milk, egg, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, milk, egg, vanilla. 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipesCurrant SherbetCurrant Sherbet9 recipes