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Dessert

Improved Madeira Cake

A moist, buttery cake with sugar, flour, milk, eggs, and a citron peel garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Improved Madeira 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. Melt the butter and stir until a cream forms.

  2. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly for several minutes.

  3. Add the eggs three at a time, stirring well between each addition.

  4. Mix in the self-raising flour and milk until combined.

Top and bake

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared cake tin lined with paper.

  2. Brush the top with egg white mixed with a little sugar syrup.

  3. Garnish with a few chips of citron peel on each cake.

  4. 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.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb through fat.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
Eggs
Bind the batter, add moisture, and help set the structure.
Self-raising flour
Provides the structure of the crumb and helps the cake rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter.

The step that matters

Add the eggs three at a time, stirring well between each addition. Eggs are emulsions that can separate or curdle if added too quickly to the creamed butter and sugar. Adding them gradually and mixing well lets the fat and liquid combine evenly, which keeps the batter smooth and the crumb fine.

“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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