Skip to main content
Breakfast

Plain Wheat Cakes

Pancakes made from flour, milk, eggs and baking powder, with a note on using the same batter for waffles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Plain Wheat Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Make a batter with one quart of flour and two heaping teaspoonfuls Star Crystal Baking Powder, well sifted.

  2. Add milk enough to smoothen the batter.

  3. Beat two eggs.

  4. Add one-half cup of melted butter.

  5. Add a little salt.

  6. Mix well and bake on hot griddle.

  7. Beat three eggs with a pint of milk.

  8. Add a pinch of salt, one teaspoonful Star Crystal Baking Powder, and sufficient flour to make a smooth batter.

Cook the cakes

  1. Fry the pancakes in hot butter.

  2. Roll them over on each side.

  3. Drain and serve very hot with lemon and sugar.

  4. Combine one pint of flour, one teaspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of Star Crystal Baking Powder, three well-beaten eggs, and butter the size of an egg, melted and beaten in with two cups of milk.

  5. Rub the griddle smooth with brown paper and salt; never grease it.

  6. Heat the griddle until it hisses as the batter is poured on.

  7. Bake until full of fine holes, then turn and bake on the other side until it falls a little.

  8. Do not turn pancakes a second time.

Waffles and sour cream

  1. For waffles, use the same mixture with only one and one-quarter cups of milk for waffle irons.

  2. If sour cream is available, omit the butter and baking powder and use one teaspoonful of soda instead.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

833Calories
27 gProtein
26 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, so the cakes rise and become light and full of holes.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cakes together as they set.
Milk
Adds moisture and thins the batter to a pourable consistency.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and tenderness, and fries the cakes to a golden surface.

The step that matters

Heat the griddle until it hisses before pouring the batter. A hot, dry griddle sets the outside of the batter quickly, so the cakes rise evenly and form fine holes instead of spreading and sticking. Ungreased, the surface must be hot enough to prevent sticking.

“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.

You might also like

Rice GruelRice Gruel28 recipesPeptoned Milk GruelPeptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes