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Dessert

Dkied Apple Cake

A moist cake made with dried apples, raisins, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Dkied Apple 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Add the beaten eggs and flour, mixing well.

  5. Stir in the raisins and chopped, stewed apples.

  6. Spice the batter as desired and add brandy or wine if using.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 1.5 hours 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a creamy base when beaten with butter.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to help the cake rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and deep sweetness with a slightly acidic note.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the milk. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly through the batter; clumps can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

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