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Dessert

★ Saffron Cake--no Eggs

An eggless saffron cake made with milk, flour, sugar, saffron, currants, yeast, and lemon extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and saffron work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 447 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

★ Saffron Cake--no Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Warm 2 cups milk.

  2. Dissolve ⅔–1 teaspoon compressed yeast in a little water; add sugar and 1 extra tablespoon of water to the sponge.

  3. Combine the warm milk, yeast, and 4½ cups flour to make a sponge; let rest overnight.

  4. In the morning, add the cup of warm saffron water to the sponge.

Make the batter

  1. Cream 2 cups butter and 2½ cups sugar with a little flour.

  2. Gradually add the sponge to the butter mixture, mixing and beating.

  3. Add the remaining warm flour (except a little used to dust the fruit) and beat well.

  4. Add 1 teaspoon lemon extract and the warmed, floured fruit (3 cups currants and 2 cups fine cut or ground citron).

  5. Mix and pour the batter into three paper‑lined cake pans.

Rise and bake

  1. Let the batter stand until bubbles appear, about 2–3 hours with soft yeast or less with compressed yeast.

  2. Bake in a slow oven until the cakes rise slowly and stop singing, about 1½–2 hours, depending on oven heat.

  3. Adjust yeast and flour amounts as needed for the brand.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

715Calories
22 gProtein
10 gFat
136 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 7 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Saffronnot in our table0
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 Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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 + saffrontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together447 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Milk + saffrontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 structure of the sponge and batter as it sets in the oven.
Compressed yeast
Ferments the sponge so the batter rises and becomes light.
Butter (in the method)
Creams with sugar to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crust while baking.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the sponge and crumb.
Currants
Add fruit sweetness and chewy pieces throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Letting the batter stand until bubbles appear. Yeast needs time to ferment and build gas before baking. Under-proofed batter bakes dense, while over-proofed batter can collapse, so watch for bubbles rather than relying only on the clock.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar, saffron. 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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