Skip to main content
Dessert

Walnut Cake

A walnut cake with a sugar glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Walnut 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the milk.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the butter mixture.

  6. Fold in the broken walnuts.

  7. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased sheet pan and bake for 45 minutes.

Make the frosting and finish

  1. For the frosting, boil the sugar and water until it threads.

  2. Slowly pour the hot syrup into the beaten egg white while mixing.

  3. Beat until cool, add vanilla, and spread over the cooled cake.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the batter and makes it light.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the butter, helping the batter hold together.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add tenderness and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, helps tenderize the crumb, and keeps the cake moist.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. The whites' foam holds the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the foam and leaves a denser cake.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

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

More walnut cake recipes

Chocolate 9Date 7Filling 7English 6Raisin 4Sour Cream 3 See all 162 →

You might also like

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