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Dessert

Apple Cake

A yeast-based loaf with raisins and apple slices, topped with butter, sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Apple Cake

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 ↓

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine the bread sponge, melted butter, sugar, beaten egg, and milk.

  2. Add flour gradually until the mixture forms a soft, non-sticky dough.

  3. Set the dough aside to rise until doubled in size.

  4. Knead in the raisins before shaping the dough into a flat loaf.

Top and bake

  1. Spread butter on top, layer with apple slices, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden and risen.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bread sponge
Provides the leavening and yeasty structure that makes the dough rise.
Egg
Adds structure and richness, helping the cake hold together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing tenderness and browning on the surface.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough and helps browning.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its body and shape.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until doubled. Rising develops gas bubbles and volume from the sponge; underproofed dough bakes dense, while the dough should be soft and non-sticky so it keeps its shape.

Swap the apple

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

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

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

More apple cake recipes

Dried 62Dutch 43German 12Molasses 9Filling 8Danish 4 See all 117 →

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