Skip to main content
Dessert

Raised Loaf Cake

A sweet loaf cake with raisins, currants, citron, spices, baked after a two-stage rise.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Raised Loaf 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 sponge

  1. In a large bowl, mix 2 cups sugar, 1 cup shortening, and 3 cups milk.

  2. Stir in enough flour to create a stiff batter.

  3. Add 1 cup yeast or 1 compressed yeast cake and mix well.

  4. Cover and let rise overnight.

Mix and bake

  1. In the morning, add 2 cups sugar, 1 cup shortening, 2 eggs, 1 small teaspoon baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, 3 cups raisins, 1 cup currants, and 1 cup citron.

  2. Mix until well combined and pour into greased loaf pans.

  3. Bake 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the stiff batter that gives the cake its structure as it rises and bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the crumb hold together.
Yeast
Ferments overnight, producing gas that makes the batter rise and turn light.
Raisins
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the loaf.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and feeds the yeast, and helps browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Overnight rise. The yeast needs time to ferment the stiff batter fully. Letting it rise long enough builds the gas and flavor that give the loaf its lightness, and a rushed rise leaves the crumb dense.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

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

More raisin loaf cake recipes

Currant 7 See all 19 →

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipes