Skip to main content
Dessert

Wateraielox Cake

A cake made from a white batter and a red batter, combined in a ring and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Wateraielox Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Grease a round or oval pan and place a buttered ring in the center.

Make the batters

  1. In a bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 1 cup white sugar.

  2. Add 1 cup sweet milk, 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and the whites of 4 eggs. Mix well.

  3. In another bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 1 cup red sugar.

  4. Add 1 cup sweet milk, 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup seedless raisins, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and the yolks of 4 eggs. Mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the red mixture into the ring and then pour the white mixture around it.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Vanilla + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

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

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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the batter a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and turns light.
Eggs
Whites add lift and structure, while yolks add richness and moisture.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown lightly while creaming in air.

The step that matters

Pour the red mixture into the ring and then pour the white mixture around it.. The ring must sit upright in the center so the two batters stay separate. If the batters mix or the ring shifts, the watermelon pattern is lost and the colors blend.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes