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Dessert

Prune Cake

A moist cake made with sugar, butter, eggs, sour milk, prunes, spices, flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Prune 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 batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and sour milk with the baking soda dissolved in it.

  3. Stir in the prunes.

  4. Sift together the dry ingredients and add them to the mixture.

  5. Beat well and pour into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming aerates the batter.
Eggs
Provide structure and binding so the cake holds its shape.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lift the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Stewed prunes
Add moisture, sweetness and a dense, fruity texture.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before mixing spreads that reaction evenly, so the cake rises uniformly instead of leaving dense or bitter pockets.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, nutmeg, clove, 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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