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Dessert

Hartford Election Cake

A yeast-leavened cake with raisins, spices, brandy, and citrus, baked in buttered paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
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Hartford Election Cake

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 ↓

Hartford Election Cake

seven loaves

Ingredients

Directions

Start the dough

  1. Begin making the cake at noon or early afternoon.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add a cupful of brandy and sherry.

  4. Add a quart of lukewarm milk.

  5. Add half of the flour.

  6. Add either a half pint of brewer's yeast or a cake and a half of compressed yeast.

  7. Beat the mixture well.

  8. Cover the pan with a thick towel.

  9. Set the pan in a warm place to rise.

Second rising and shaping

  1. At night, add the remaining flour, spices, and eggs.

  2. Set the pan in a moderately warm place for a second rising.

  3. Early next morning add the raisins, brandy, lemon peel, and rose extract.

  4. Stir soda dissolved in warm water into the batter.

  5. Pour the batter into pans lined with buttered paper.

  6. Let the cakes stand for an hour or until light.

Bake

  1. Bake the loaves for 1 to 1.5 hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

907Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
137 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 11 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 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
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Macenot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Brandynot in our table0
Rosenot 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 Mary Ronald. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Brewer's yeast
Produces gas during fermentation, so the dough rises and becomes light.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps hydrate the flour for a soft dough.

The step that matters

Set the pan in a warm place to rise.. Yeast works best in gentle warmth. Too cool and fermentation stalls, so the dough stays dense. Too hot and the yeast dies, so the cake won't lift.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, nutmeg, raisin, brandy, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, nutmeg, raisin, brandy, 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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