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Dessert

Graham Cracker Cake

A baked cake made from butter, sugar, egg yolks, milk, crushed graham crackers, baking powder, walnuts, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Graham Cracker Cake

Why it works: Walnut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Graham Cracker 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and milk, mixing well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers and baking powder.

  4. Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture.

  5. Stir in the chopped walnuts and almonds.

Bake

  1. Bake in layers at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Walnut + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter as they set in the oven.
Graham crackers
Form the crumb structure of the cake, giving it its characteristic texture and flavor.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn fluffy.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft crumb.
Almonds
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles from the creamed butter and sugar intact. Overmixing develops gluten and deflates the batter, leading to a dense cake.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Pistachiofits about as well
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, almond. 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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