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Dessert

Huckleberry Cake

A sweet cake made with huckleberries, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, vanilla, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Huckleberry Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the milk, egg, baking soda, cream of tartar, and vanilla extract; mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour and stir until combined.

  5. Dredge the huckleberries in a little flour and gently fold them into the batter.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes.

  2. Serve hot or cold.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its starch and proteins set during baking.
Butter
Creams with the sugar to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and moisture as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so the baking soda reacts and helps the cake rise.
Huckleberries
Add fruit moisture and tartness, and their juices colour the crumb.

The step that matters

Dredging the huckleberries before folding. Lightly coating the berries in flour helps keep them suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom. Folding gently avoids crushing the berries and overworking the batter, which would make the cake dense.

“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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