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Dessert

Dutch Apple Cake

A baked apple cake with a buttery batter, topped with sliced apples, sugar, cinnamon, and a lemon‑cornstarch sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

  1. Sift together the flour and baking powder.

  2. Rub the butter into the flour mixture.

  3. Add the beaten egg, milk, salt, and sugar; mix until smooth.

  4. Pour the batter into a buttered pan, spreading it to about ½ inch thick.

  5. Peel, core, and cut the apples into eighths.

  6. Arrange the apple slices in rows, sharp edges down, to cover the cake.

  7. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon, and dot with butter.

  8. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, boil the hot water and sugar for 5 minutes.

  2. Stir in the cornstarch, lemon juice, and rind, and 2 teaspoons of butter.

  3. Cook until smooth.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + milktop 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the cake and sauce.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter and helps form a smooth, pourable mix.
Cornstarch
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it a smooth, glossy body.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until smooth. Cornstarch must be heated with the liquid to fully thicken; stirring while it cooks prevents lumps and keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the apple

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

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

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