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Dessert

Loaf Cake

A yeast-leavened loaf cake with raisins, currants, and spices, baked in a tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Loaf 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.

Prepare

  1. Cut the butter into the milk and warm until soft.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Beat the eggs and mix them with the butter and milk.

  4. Stir the mixture into the flour in a large bowl.

  5. Add the mixed spice and liquor.

  6. Gradually stir in the sugar.

  7. Pour off the thin part from the yeast. Stir the thin part and add it to the mixture.

  8. Sprinkle in the remaining flour.

  9. Gradually stir in the floured fruit.

Rise and bake

  1. Butter a large tin pan.

  2. Pour the batter into it.

  3. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 5 to 6 hours.

  4. When light, bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until done.

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. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it rises and bakes.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb through fat coating the flour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Brewer's yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter rise during the long warm rest.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and contributes to its soft texture and browning.
Raisins
Add sweetness and moisture to the finished cake.

The step that matters

Let the batter rise fully before baking. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas and make the batter light. Baking before the batter is light leaves a dense cake, so wait until it is visibly risen as the step directs.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

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