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Dessert

Cracker and Nut Cake

A sweet cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, milk, crackers, chocolate, baking powder, walnuts, raisins, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cracker and Nut 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).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until well mixed.

  2. Add the sugar and butter, and mix until creamy.

  3. Stir in the milk, rolled crackers, grated chocolate, and baking powder.

  4. Fold in the chopped walnuts, raisins, and citron.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-35 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Walnut + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs bind the batter and give the cake its airy structure as they set.
Sugar
Sugar sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a lighter crumb.
Butter
Butter adds richness and tenderness, and creaming it with sugar aids texture.
Baking powder
Baking powder releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Rolled crackers
Crumbs add body to the batter and help give the cake its dense, moist texture.
Chopped walnuts
Walnuts add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Ovens vary, and a cake pulled too early can sink or stay gummy in the centre, while overbaking dries it out. Testing the centre with a toothpick shows when the structure has set.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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