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Dessert

Tit-tat-toe Cake

A layered cake made with raisins, currants, chocolate, spices, and lemon, baked and frosted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Towanda, Pa. Christ church. Young ladies society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tit-tat-toe Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat four eggs very lightly.

  2. Beat a cream by mixing two cups and a half of sugar, half a cup of butter, one cup of sweet milk, a large pinch of salt, and three teaspoonfuls baking powder stirred in with two cups and a half of flour.

  3. Divide the dough thus made into three parts.

Flavor the layers

  1. To one part add half a cup of raisins, stoned and chopped, and half a cup of currants; grate half a teaspoonful of nutmeg and mix with half a teaspoonful of cinnamon. This is for one layer of the cake.

  2. To the next part add two tablespoonfuls grated chocolate and a teaspoonful vanilla. The one light colored layer should be flavored with lemon.

Bake and assemble

  1. When baked, put the chocolate layer on the bottom, the one with fruit next, and the light layer on top.

  2. Put together with icing and frost the top.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1019Calories
30 gProtein
36 gFat
144 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 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
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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 Towanda, Pa. Christ church. Young ladies society. [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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the cake set as it bakes.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color to one of the layers.

The step that matters

Stir the baking powder evenly into the flour. Baking powder must be evenly distributed so each part of the cake rises at the same rate; clumps can cause dense spots or holes.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, chocolate, butter, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, chocolate, butter, raisin, nutmeg, cinnamon, 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.

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