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Dessert

Buffalo Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, eggs, milk, and optional ginger, served with jam or honey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. J. Edmonds Ltd. · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Buffalo Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cream butter and sugar.

  2. Add eggs beaten.

  3. Mix flour and baking powder, and add to mixture.

  4. Add enough milk to make thin.

  5. Cook in sponge sandwich tins.

  6. Put together with lemon honey or raspberry jam.

  7. Icing on top.

  8. Soften butter or dripping if very hard, add sugar and beat to a cream.

  9. Slightly warm the milk, and beat it in by degrees.

  10. Stir in lightly the flour previously sifted with the Egg powder, ground ginger, and half a saltspoon of salt.

  11. Drop in spoonfuls on a cold baking tray.

  12. Sprinkle a little sugar over.

  13. Bake in hot oven for about ten minutes.

  14. Beat butter and sugar.

  15. Add egg and flour mixed with baking powder.

  16. Roll small pieces between the hands.

  17. Dip in sugar.

  18. Put on cold tray.

  19. Bake in moderate oven till slightly brown.

  20. Mix flour, sugar, and Edmonds’ Baking Powder together.

  21. Mix egg and milk.

  22. Make a well in centre of dry ingredients.

  23. Mix to a smooth paste with milk.

  24. Cook in small lots on hot greased girdle.

  25. Cream butter and sugar.

  26. Add eggs beaten and flavouring.

  27. Mix baking powder, flour, and cornflour, and add to mixture.

  28. Mix until quite light.

  29. Drop in teaspoon lots on cold oven shelf.

  30. Bake in quick oven.

  31. When cold, fasten together with jam.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

886Calories
28 gProtein
31 gFat
121 gCarbs
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
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By T. J. Edmonds Ltd.. 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 richness and structure as they set.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise and turn light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, creamed texture.

The step that matters

Bake in a hot or quick oven. Baking soon after mixing lets the baking powder release gas while the batter is still active, giving a light rise. A cool oven lets the batter spread and sink, leaving the cakes flat and dense.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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