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Dessert

Prince of Wales Cake

A two-part cake with a dark brown part and a white part, layered together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Prince of Wales 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.

Make the dark batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together brown sugar and butter.

  2. Add sour milk, flour, chopped raisins, dissolved baking soda, molasses, egg yolks, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix well.

Make the white batter

  1. In another bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, sweet milk, butter, sugar, and baking powder.

  2. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the white mixture.

Bake and assemble

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

  2. Bake both mixtures in separate pans until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

  3. Once cooled, layer the black and white parts together with icing.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks give the white layer its light, airy structure; yolks add richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the dark layer rise.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in both the dark and white batters.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper color and flavor to the dark batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cakes bake.
Cornstarch
Softens the flour's gluten, giving the white layer a finer, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that gives the white layer its lift. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates them, leaving a dense, heavy cake.

“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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