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Dessert

Dried Apple Cake

A moist cake made with dried apples, molasses, butter, brown sugar, sour milk, eggs, flour, baking soda, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Dried Apple Cake

Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Dried Apple 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.

Prepare the apples

  1. Simmer the soaked and chopped dried apples with molasses for 3 hours.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the sour milk, beaten eggs, and the cooled apple mixture to the creamed mixture.

  3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

  4. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet mixture, then stir well.

  5. Pour the batter into a loaf pan.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Dried apples
Provide fruit pieces and moisture that stay tender through the long bake.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and caramel notes that help browning.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Mixing too vigorously after the flour goes in develops gluten and can make the cake tough. Stir just until combined so the crumb stays tender.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, molasses, butter, sugar, milk, egg, 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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