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Dessert

Almond, Hickory-nut or Cocoa-nut Cake

A cake made with all-purpose flour, butter, sugar, sour cream, eggs, lemon flavor, baking soda, hot water, and grated cocoa nut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Almond, Hickory-nut or Cocoa-nut Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, butter, sugar, and sour cream until well combined.

  3. Add the eggs and lemon flavor, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add to the mixture.

  5. Grate in the white part of the cocoa nut and stir until evenly distributed.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + cocoatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together548 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-undecalactone (coconut, creamy).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moist.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity for a tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to help the cake rise.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in hot water before adding it. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed so it reacts with the acidic sour cream and leavens the batter uniformly. Undissolved pockets can cause uneven rising or bitter spots.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, cream, egg, lemon. 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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