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Dessert

Election Cake

A yeast-leavened cake with raisins, currants, citron, molasses, mace, cinnamon, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Election Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Combine one cup of yeast, one cup of sweet milk, one cup of lard, one cup of sugar, one egg, and enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  2. Mix at night.

Mix the dough

  1. In the morning add two cups of sugar, two eggs, one cup of butter, one teaspoon of mace, one tablespoon of cinnamon, enough flour to make it as stiff as other cake, raisins, and currants.

  2. Let the batter rise in the pans for an hour or more.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake in a moderate oven and ice when done.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1074Calories
28 gProtein
39 gFat
153 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Macenot in our table0
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 Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Yeast
Leavens the batter, giving the cake its light, open crumb as it rises.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the stiff batter and the fruit together.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, softening the crumb and carrying flavour.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and keeps the cake moist.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chew and moisture throughout the cake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.

The step that matters

Letting the batter rise in the pans. The yeast needs enough time to raise the stiff batter before baking. Under-proofed batter bakes dense, while the fruit-heavy batter needs room to expand evenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, butter, flour, raisin, currant, molasses):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, flour, raisin, currant, molasses. 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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