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Dessert

Apple Sauce Cake

A moist cake made with apple sauce, raisins or dates, walnuts, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Apple Sauce Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the cold apple sauce, raisins or dates, and walnut meats.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add it to the mixture.

  3. Add the ground cloves and cinnamon, then mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour, stirring until just combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick 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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

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

  5. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as the batter bakes.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic apple sauce to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Apple sauce
Adds moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the cake tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, tender crumb when creamed.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the hot water. Baking soda needs an acid and moisture to react and lift the batter. Dissolving it fully before adding it spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises without pockets or bitter patches.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, sauce, raisin, walnut, meat, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, sauce, raisin, walnut, meat, clove. 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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