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Dessert

Little Plum Cakes

A sweet cake made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, raisins, currants, and leavening, baked in a quick or moderate oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Little Plum Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat one cup of sugar and half a cup of butter to a smooth cream.

  2. Add three well-beaten eggs, a teaspoonful of vanilla extract, four cups of sifted flour, one cup of raisins, one cup of currants, half a teaspoonful of baking soda dissolved in a little water, and enough milk to make a stiff batter.

  3. Drop the batter in drops onto well-buttered tins.

  4. Bake in a quick oven.

Make the rings

  1. Cream together two cups of sugar and one cup of butter.

  2. Add three well-beaten eggs, six tablespoonfuls of sweet milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and flavor to taste.

  3. Add flour enough to make a soft dough.

  4. Do not roll the dough on the pasteboard; instead break off pieces the size of a walnut and shape into rings by rolling out rolls as large as your finger and joining the ends.

  5. Lay the rings on tins to bake, an inch apart, as they rise and spread.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

984Calories
29 gProtein
34 gFat
138 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Walnut1 walnut half (4g)26
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Waternot 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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 they set in the oven.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cakes a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown the surface during baking.
Flour
Forms the main structure that sets as the cakes bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the rings rise and lighten.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to add lift and help the drops spread and brown.

The step that matters

Shaping and spacing the rings. The dough must be shaped without overworking it, since rolling it on a board toughens it. Leaving an inch between rings gives room to rise and spread, so they do not fuse together in the oven.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, butter, cream, vanilla, egg. 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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