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Cornflour Cakes

A sweet cake made from cornflour, butter, sugar, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cornflour Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Soften butter in oven.

  2. Beat butter with sugar together, adding flour and egg alternately gradually.

  3. Add 1 breakfast cupful flour and 4 teaspoonful cream of tartar, then 1 egg and 1 teaspoonful soda, then 4 breakfast cupful milk and 2 tablespoonfuls castor sugar.

Bake the cakes

  1. Put mixture into tins; bake until light brown.

Make the crumpets

  1. Beat egg, add milk, and mix in all dry ingredients together after smoothing out any lumps.

  2. Heat griddle with lard and bake crumpets in spoonfuls.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

782Calories
28 gProtein
20 gFat
121 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
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 Hamilton, Margaret. 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 main structure of the cakes as its starch sets when heated.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat that gives the cakes a tender, crumbly texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that reacts with the soda to help the batter rise.
Milk
Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and loosens the batter.

The step that matters

Mix in the dry ingredients gently. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form, so overmixing makes the cakes and crumpets tough. Stir only until the lumps are smoothed out.

“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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