Skip to main content
Dessert

English Tea Cakes

A yeasted cake with currants and lemon peel, baked and glazed with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

English Tea Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Mix flour and salt in a warm bowl.

  2. Make a hole in the center.

  3. Soak the yeast.

  4. Stir the sugar into the yeast.

  5. Melt the butter and lard in a pan.

  6. Add lukewarm milk to the melted butter and lard.

  7. Pour the milk mixture into the yeast.

  8. Stir everything into the flour with the beaten eggs.

  9. Add the currants and lemon peel.

  10. Mix until a soft dough forms.

  11. Cover the dough.

  12. Let the dough rise overnight.

Shape and bake

  1. Divide the dough into small cakes about the size of a pie plate and half an inch thick.

  2. Let the cakes rise in a warm place for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

  4. Remove the cakes from the oven.

  5. Rub butter over the top to glaze.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chewy crumb.
Yeast
Ferments the dough, producing gas that makes the cakes rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough.
Butter and lard
Add fat, which tenderizes the crumb and adds richness.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping bind the dough.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the cakes.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise overnight. Yeast needs time and warmth to ferment fully; under-proofed dough stays dense, while the gas it produces gives the cakes their light, open texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesRed Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipes