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Dessert

Fried Cakes

Fried cakes are batter made with sugar, sour milk, sour cream, baking soda, eggs, salt, and spice, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Fried Cakes

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Fried Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the sugar, sour milk, and sour cream.

  2. Add the baking soda, eggs, salt, and spice, and stir until well combined.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Remove and drain on paper towels before serving.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and sour cream so the cakes rise.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure to the cakes as they set.
Sour cream
Adds richness and moisture, and its acidity helps the leavening reaction.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the hot oil.

The step that matters

Frying the batter in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the cakes absorb excess oil and turn greasy, while oil that is too hot browns the outside before the centre cooks. Frying in batches at a steady medium heat gives even golden colour and a cooked interior.

“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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