Skip to main content
Dessert

Indian Corn Cakes

A sweet corn cake made with cornmeal, egg, brown sugar, syrup, and baking powder, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Indian Corn 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.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the cornmeal, egg, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt to form a stiff paste.

  2. Stir in the golden syrup, molasses, or treacle to taste.

  3. Quickly mix in the baking powder.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered tins.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + syruptop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,995 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Forms the body of the cakes and gives them their grainy, sturdy texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture and adds structure as the cakes set in the oven.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cakes brown as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and become lighter.

The step that matters

Quickly mix in the baking powder. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it meets moisture and heat-free batter, so mixing it in quickly and getting the tins into the oven preserves its lift. Waiting lets the gas escape before baking, leaving flatter cakes.

“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

Oranges in SyrupOranges in Syrup9 recipesSyrup SauceSyrup Sauce6 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes