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Dessert

Nut Layer Cake

A layered cake made with chocolate and lemon batters, walnut cream filling, and coconut topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Nut Layer 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl.

  3. Add the milk, yolks of the two eggs, and the beaten white of one egg, then mix the mixture well.

  4. Sift in the flour and baking powder, stirring until combined.

  5. Divide the batter into two bowls.

  6. In one bowl, add chocolate and vanilla.

  7. In the other bowl, add lemon extract.

  8. Pour the chocolate batter into one pan.

  9. Pour the lemon batter into two other pans.

Bake

  1. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Whip the cream until thick.

  2. Fold in the chopped walnuts and sugar.

Assemble and finish

  1. Spread the walnut cream between the layers of cake.

  2. Top with the reserved egg white icing and sprinkle shredded coconut over it.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Walnut + chocolatetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

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

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and moisture, and help the batter set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb to the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the layers rise.
Heavy cream
Whipped into a thick filling that keeps the layers moist.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty texture to the cream filling.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Egg and flour proteins set as the cake bakes. Underbaking can leave the layers wet and collapsing, while overbaking dries the crumb, so checking for doneness matters.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

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