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Dessert

National Grocery Co

A baked apple cake with a buttery biscuit-like base, apple slices, and a milk‑cornstarch glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Seattle (Wash.). Congregation Temple de Hirsch. Ladies' Auxiliary · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

National Grocery Co

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder.

  2. Work in the butter with finger tips.

  3. Add 2 apples cut into dice.

  4. Add beaten egg and milk to mix a little softer than biscuit.

  5. Spread the batter in a shallow pan.

  6. Lay slices of apple over the top.

  7. Sprinkle with sugar.

  8. Bake in a hot oven.

Make the layered cakes

  1. Mix one cup flour, 1‑3 cups butter, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 egg, and a pinch of salt until well blended.

  2. Mold the mixture on a board and cut into 3 parts.

  3. Roll each part to fill a pie plate.

  4. Bake 3 cakes in a slow oven until a light brown.

  5. Cook 4 or 5 apples as for apple sauce, with a little sugar.

  6. When the apple sauce is cool, add a little cinnamon and spread between the layers.

Finish and rest

  1. Cover the top of the cake with cream: boil ½ cups milk, dissolve a tablespoon of cornstarch in a little cold milk; add 1 beaten egg, ½ cup sugar, and lemon extract to taste.

  2. Stir this into the boiling milk and pour over the cake while warm.

  3. Let the cake rest for 24 hours before using.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

785Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
135 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
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 Seattle (Wash.). Congregation Temple de Hirsch. Ladies' Auxiliary. 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 batter and the cake layers.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a crumbly texture in the layers.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
Apples
Add moisture and fruity flavor between and on top of the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the batter as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the top brown during baking.

The step that matters

Bake the layers in a slow oven until light brown. Baking too hot browns the outside before the layers set through, while a slow oven cooks them evenly and keeps them tender.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

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