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Dessert

Eggless Dried Apple Cake

A moist cake made with dried apples, molasses, butter, and spices, baked without eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Eggless Dried Apple 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.

Prepare the apples

  1. Soak the chopped dried apples in water overnight.

  2. Cook the soaked apples in molasses until soft.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the softened butter, sugar, and sour milk.

  2. Add the cooked apples, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, lemon extract, and nutmeg to the mixture.

  3. Stir in enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  4. Fold in the raisins if using.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and moist texture.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda, helping the cake rise and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas, lifting the batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that browns the cake.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
Dried apples
Add fruit moisture and chew, softened by cooking in molasses.

The step that matters

Stir in the flour to a stiff batter. Flour is the structure of the cake. Adding too much makes the crumb dense and dry, while too little leaves it fragile and collapsed after baking. Mix only until the flour is evenly combined so gluten develops little and the texture stays tender.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, molasses, butter, sugar, milk, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, molasses, butter, sugar, milk, cinnamon, clove. 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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