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Dessert

Eggless Raisin Cake

A moist raisin cake made without eggs, using lard and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Eggless Raisin Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the raisin mixture

  1. In a large pot, combine brown sugar, salt, cold water, cinnamon, lard, nutmeg, raisins, and cloves.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 3 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

  4. Once cooled, dissolve baking soda in a little cold water and add it to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Sift together flour and baking powder, then mix into the batter until well combined.

  2. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot, acidic mixture to lift and lighten the crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Adds additional lift so the batter rises evenly in the oven.
Lard
Adds fat for moistness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture completely before adding the baking soda. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets moisture and acid, and it is most effective when the batter is not hot. Adding it to a hot mixture can make it foam and rise unevenly, so the cake may lose lift and texture.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, raisin, flour. 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.

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