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Dessert

Dutch Apple Cake

A yeast-based apple cake with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and currants, baked in a dripping pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Dutch Apple Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix the first four ingredients.

  2. When lukewarm, add yeast cake, eggs unbeaten, and flour to make a soft dough.

  3. Cover, let rise, beat thoroughly, and again let rise.

Assemble

  1. Spread the dough in a buttered dripping-pan as thinly as possible and brush over with melted butter.

  2. Pare, cut the apples into eighths, and remove cores.

  3. Press the sharp edges of the apples into the dough in parallel rows lengthwise of the pan.

  4. Sprinkle the apples with sugar mixed with cinnamon and sprinkle with currants.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover, let rise, and bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes.

  2. Cut the cake into squares and serve hot or cold with whipped cream sweetened and flavored.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

996Calories
29 gProtein
27 gFat
163 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
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Yeast cake
Makes the dough rise, giving it a light, airy crumb.
Eggs
Add richness and structure to the soft dough.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dough and brushed surface.
Apples
Provide moisture and tartness that contrast with the sweet topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and helps the top brown as it bakes.
Milk
Scalded and cooled, it softens the dough and adds tenderness.

The step that matters

Spreading the dough thinly. The dough must be spread as thinly as possible so it bakes into a thin base under the apples rather than a thick bread, and the apples are pressed in so they sit level within it.

Swap the currant

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

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

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