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Dessert

Blanche Kammerer

A sweet yeast cake with almonds, raisins, spices, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 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 ↓

Blanche Kammerer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Raise one yeast cake in half glass of lukewarm milk and a little sugar, then add flour to make a sponge.

  2. Let raise again.

  3. Cream one-quarter pound of butter, one-quarter pound of sugar and four yolks for fifteen minutes.

  4. Add yeast, ten ounces of sifted flour, little salt, teaspoon of vanilla, then the four egg whites beaten and quarter pound almonds blanched and chopped.

  5. Mix well, turn into tube pan.

  6. The pan should be well greased and sprinkled with chopped almonds.

  7. Let raise until double its bulk and bake in moderate oven forty-five minutes.

Make the dough and batter

  1. Raise one and one-half cakes of yeast in one cup of cream and teaspoon of sugar.

  2. Cream one-half pound butter with three-fourths cup of sugar, add six well beaten eggs, the raised yeast, level teaspoon of salt, rind of one lemon, one cup of blanched chopped almonds and enough flour to make dough soft enough to pour in your cake form with tube.

  3. Set in warm place to raise until light and bake about one hour.

  4. Cream two-thirds cup of butter with two cups of sugar, two cups of raised dough, three well beaten yolks, one teaspoon of soda dissolved in two tablespoons of milk, half grated nutmeg, one tablespoon of cinnamon, one teaspoon of cloves.

  5. Mix well together, then fold in beaten whites of eggs and add one cup of raisins, beat hard for several minutes.

  6. Put in buttered pans, let raise thirty minutes and bake in moderate oven one hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

978Calories
29 gProtein
33 gFat
144 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 13 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, and help the batter set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and become light.
Almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavor to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake and dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise fully before baking. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas; underproofed dough bakes dense, while overproofed dough can collapse. Watching for doubled volume or a light texture gives the cake its lift.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, almond, cream, milk, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, almond, cream, milk, cinnamon. 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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