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Dessert

English Farm Cake

A yeast-raised cake made with butter, sugar, flour, milk, raisins, mace, and lemon peel, without eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

English Farm Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Soften two pounds of butter (not melted).

  2. Add two pounds of sugar and mix together until creamed.

  3. Take out one-half of the mixture and reserve it in a separate bowl until needed.

  4. To the rest add one quart of warm sweet milk.

  5. Stir in gradually four pounds of flour.

  6. Mix in very thoroughly a teacupful of lively homemade yeast.

  7. Let the dough stand in a warm place until very light, about four hours.

Add the fruit and rise

  1. Add the remainder of the butter and sugar and a little more flour if needed.

  2. Add two pounds of raisins, nicely stoned, a little pulverized mace, and, if at hand, some candied lemon peel.

  3. Let the dough rise again.

  4. When well risen, mix it well using the hands.

Bake and keep

  1. Portion the dough into well-buttered pans.

  2. Let the pans stand in a moderately warm place until beginning to rise.

  3. Put the pans into a steady oven and bake them fully for an hour or longer if only one or two pans are used.

  4. If the top and sides are frosted, it will keep moist for a long time.

  5. Wrap the cake in brown paper before putting it into the cake box.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

680Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
127 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Macenot 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 Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,742 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 tenderness, and creams with sugar to trap air for a lighter crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps tenderize it and aid browning.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it rises and bakes.
Yeast (in the method)
Leavens the dough so it rises and becomes very light before baking.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruit flavor throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Letting the dough stand until very light. Yeast needs enough warmth and time to produce gas; underproofing leaves a dense cake, while the dough must still be handled gently so the gas bubbles that give lightness are not knocked out.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, raisin, lemon. 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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