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Dessert

Bread Cake

A sweet cake made with milk, eggs, flour, sugar, butter, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bread Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the cream or milk, egg whites, and sugar.

  2. Add the buttermilk, egg, and butter, mixing well.

  3. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.

  5. Fold in the seeded raisins and adjust the flour if needed.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Let it rise again, then bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 40 to 50 minutes.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites and yolks add structure and richness as the batter sets in the oven.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, which reacts with the leavening to help the cake rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lightens the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor in the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth. Adding the dry ingredients gradually and mixing only until smooth prevents lumps and limits gluten development, keeping the cake tender rather than tough.

“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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