Skip to main content
Dessert

May Fried L

A sweet cake with butter crumbs topping, made from flour, powdered sugar, butter, milk, eggs, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

May Fried L

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crumb

  1. Mix two and one-half cups of flour, one and one-third cups of powdered sugar, one-half cup of butter and lard, and a pinch of salt.

  2. Rub all together as for pie crust.

  3. Take out a small cup of crumbs and set aside.

Make the batter and bake

  1. To the balance add two teaspoons of baking powder and one-half grated nutmeg.

  2. Stir, then add two beaten eggs and one cup of milk. Beat well.

  3. Pour into two cake tins and sprinkle with crumbs set aside.

  4. Bake in quick oven.

  5. Mix three cups flour, one and one-half cups sugar, four beaten eggs, and three-quarters cup butter.

  6. Reserve one cup of butter crumbs for topping.

  7. To the remainder add two teaspoons baking powder, pinch salt, one cup milk, and mix thoroughly.

  8. Put dough in two pans, cover with butter crumbs, and bake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
121 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Tea + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the crumb and the cake batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour in both the crumb and the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and turns light.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter so it mixes and bakes evenly.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake in a quick oven. A hot oven makes the baking powder release gas quickly and sets the batter while it is still rising, giving a light crumb. A cool oven lets the cake sink and turn dense.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, milk, tea, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, milk, tea, egg. 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.

More coffee cake recipes

German 56Filling 7Apple 4Chocolate 3Dutch 3 See all 347 →

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes