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Dessert

Potato Cake, Sweet

A sweet potato cake made with mashed potatoes, powdered sugar, candied peel, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Potato Cake, Sweet

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Bake the potatoes until done, then burst them and scoop out the contents.

  3. Crush the potatoes until smooth and measure 2 cups.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the mashed potatoes with ½ cup powdered sugar, candied peel, and the beaten yolks of 3 eggs.

  2. Blend the ingredients thoroughly, then fold in the beaten egg whites until frothy.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered dish and sift a little sugar over the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for about 30 minutes until set and lightly browned.

  2. Serve hot in the baking dish.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Potato + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,032 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

Potatoes
Provide the bulk and moist, soft body of the cake.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help it set.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and dissolves smoothly into the mashed potato.
Candied peel
Adds bursts of citrus-sweet flavour and chewy texture through the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lightness. Folding gently keeps that air in, while stirring vigorously would deflate the foam and leave a dense, heavy result.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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