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Dessert

Dutch Apple Cake

A baked apple cake made with flour, butter, milk, eggs, apples, sugar, and optional cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Dutch Apple Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  3. Rub in the butter until well combined.

  4. Beat the egg and mix it with the milk, then stir into the dry mixture.

  5. Spread the dough about ½ inch thick on a shallow baking pan.

Top and bake

  1. Core, peel, and cut the apples into eighths.

  2. Lay the apple slices in parallel rows on top of the dough, sharp edge down, pressing slightly into it.

  3. Sprinkle the sugar and a little cinnamon on the apples.

  4. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until golden.

  5. Serve with lemon sauce as a pudding.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the apples.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the dough.
Cream of tartar
Provides acid that works with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and gives a crumbly texture.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Apples
Provide moisture and a tart flavour that balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Spread the dough about ½ inch thick. Dough spread too thin bakes dry and crisp, while dough spread too thick stays raw in the centre, so an even layer helps the cake bake through evenly.

Swap the cinnamon

The recipe marks cinnamon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, butter, egg, milk, apple, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

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