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Dessert

Plain Pound or Currant Cake

A pound cake made with sugar, eggs, flour, butter, currants, caraway seeds, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Plain Pound or Currant Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the batter

  1. Mix ten eggs (or a pound in weight), one pound of sugar, one pound of flour, and as much butter as desired.

  2. For a plum-cake, beat the butter into a cream; add the sugar first, then the yolks of the eggs, then stir lightly in the whites.

  3. Add one pound of currants and candied peel.

  4. Gradually add the flour.

  5. Add a glass of brandy if desired.

Bake

  1. Bake for nearly or quite two hours (or one hour for half the quantity).

  2. To convert into the Irish "speckled bread" (Brawn Brack), add three ounces of caraway seeds.

Ice and finish

  1. Ice the cake using the Sugar Glazings recipe.

  2. Add a rose tint to the icing with a little prepared cochineal.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

189Calories
7 gProtein
6 gFat
29 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

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

By Eliza Acton. 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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and currant barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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
Provide structure and richness, and the yolks and whites add lift and tenderness to the crumb.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for a tender, rich crumb and helps the batter hold moisture.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the structure of the cake as its starches set during baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Currants
Add sweetness and moist, chewy pieces throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Stirring in the whites lightly. Whisked egg whites trap air that gives the cake lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a denser cake, so the whites should be folded gently and only until combined.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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