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Dessert

English Tea Cakes

Small cakes made from flour, baking powder, salt, butter, lard, sugar, and milk, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

English Tea Cakes

50 cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift 1 pint flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder.

  2. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt (rounding).

  3. Add 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup lard.

  4. Add 1 dessert spoon sugar and milk.

  5. Sift flour and baking powder; add salt, then butter, lard, and sugar, creaming them together.

  6. Mix to a soft dough with ice‑cold milk; handle.

  7. Divide dough into 50 cakes.

Shape and bake

  1. Flour a board.

  2. Pat the dough out to about 1/4 or 2/4 inches thick.

  3. Cut with a biscuit cutter.

  4. Do not allow the cakes to touch in the pan.

  5. Bake in a hot oven for 10 or 15 minutes.

  6. Split when hot, butter them, and serve with afternoon tea.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

504Calories
13 gProtein
1 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal 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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 dough that holds the cakes together.
Butter (in the method)
Adds richness and tenderness through fat coating the flour.
Lard (in the method)
Adds fat that keeps the cakes tender and short in texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the cakes rise and turn light.
Milk (in the method)
Hydrates the flour so the ingredients bind into a soft dough.

The step that matters

Do not allow the cakes to touch in the pan.. Cakes that touch spread and soften their sides as they bake, so they need space for the heat to reach all surfaces and for even browning and rising.

“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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