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Dessert

A Good Madeira Cake

A light sponge cake made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs, lemon rind, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Good Madeira Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Whisk four fresh eggs until they are as light as possible.

  2. While whisking, gradually add the following ingredients in order: six ounces of dry, pounded, and sifted sugar; six ounces of flour, also dried and sifted; four ounces of butter just dissolved, but not heated; the rind of a fresh lemon.

  3. Just before the cake is moulded, beat in one-third of a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda.

Bake

  1. Bake the batter for an hour in a moderate oven. (Candied citron can be added to the paste, but it is not needed.)

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

241Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
17 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Eggs1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
Whisked to a light foam that gives the cake its structure and lift.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the cake's structure once set by the heat of the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb, as it is added melted but not hot.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the cake and helps give it a fine, soft texture.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the batter to help it rise when beaten in just before moulding.

The step that matters

Beating in the carbonate of soda just before moulding. Carbonate of soda starts to react as soon as it meets the batter, so it should be added just before the cake is moulded and baked. Waiting too long lets the gas escape before the oven sets the batter, which can leave the cake flat.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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