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Dessert

The Bakers' Guide

A dense cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, currants, sultanas, candied peel, nutmeg, mixed spice, and milk, baked in a cool oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Blandy, John · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,685 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The Bakers' Guide

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Combine butter, sugar, eggs, flour, currants, sultanas, candied peel, nutmeg, mixed spice, and milk to make the mixture soft and pliable.

  2. Prepare the mixture as for pound cakes.

Bake and store

  1. Place the batter in large-sized cake tins.

  2. Bake in a cool oven thoroughly.

  3. Store the cakes in a cool, damp place for several days to allow fermentation.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

239Calories
14 gProtein
14 gFat
14 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
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
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 Blandy, John. 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 + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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 as the cake sets.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness and helps browning during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture becomes soft and pliable.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven thoroughly. A cool, slow bake lets heat reach the centre of a large, dense cake before the outside over-browns or sets. Baking too hot leaves the middle raw or the crust burnt, so the cake must be fully baked through.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Dillfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk. 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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