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Dessert

Potato Cake

A sweet cake made with mashed potatoes, chocolate, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Potato Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the hot mashed potatoes and melted chocolate.

  2. Mix in the milk, flour, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder until combined.

  3. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased bread pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  2. Let cool, then cut into squares.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Provide structure as they set, and emulsify the fats to bind the batter.
Mashed potatoes
Add moisture and softness, keeping the cake tender after baking.
Melted chocolate
Adds deep chocolate flavor and richness to the batter.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become airy.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Potato and chocolate make the batter dense and moist, so underbaking leaves a gummy center, while overbaking dries the crumb. Checking the center with a toothpick confirms the cake is set through.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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