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Dessert

Ashland Cake

A layered lemon cake with a sugar‑citrus filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Ashland Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

  1. Combine one-half cup butter, one-half cup sweet milk, one cup flour, one cup sugar, one-half cup corn starch, and the whites of four eggs.

  2. Add one teaspoonful Star Crystal Baking Powder and ten drops lemon extract; mix well.

  3. Bake the batter in two deep jelly tins.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine two cups granulated sugar and one-quarter cup boiling water; boil until it will spin.

  2. While boiling, slowly pour the hot sugar syrup over the well-beaten whites of two eggs, beating all the time.

  3. Beat until thick enough not to run.

  4. Add one-half teaspoonful citric acid (powdered) and one teaspoonful each of lemon and vanilla.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling between the layers and over the cake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

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
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot in our table0
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 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + teatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

  5. Corn + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Flour
Provides the main structure of the cake batter.
Corn starch
Lightens the crumb and makes it more tender.
Eggs
Add structure and lift; whites beaten into the filling set it into a light foam.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and, boiled with water, forms the syrup for the filling.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the tins.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar syrup for the filling. The syrup must reach the thread stage, where it will spin. If it is underboiled, the filling stays runny; if overboiled, it turns grainy or hard. Pouring it slowly into the beaten whites, while beating, keeps the foam stable and thick.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, flour, sugar, corn, egg, tea. 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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