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Plain Loaf-Cake

A simple loaf cake made with flour, water, butter, salt, eggs, sugar, spices, yeast, and optional fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plain Loaf-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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine flour, warm water with melted butter, salt, eggs, and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well.

  2. Add grated nutmegs, cinnamon, and yeast. Stir until fully combined.

Rise and add fruit

  1. Let mixture rise until light, about 1 hour.

  2. Fold in fruit if desired. Let stand for another 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Bake until golden brown.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 risen batter together.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the crumb set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Yeast
Ferments the batter, producing gas that lifts it to a light texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture rise until light. Yeast gas is trapped in the flour and egg structure to lighten the crumb. Underproofing leaves the cake dense, while overproofing lets the gas escape and the structure collapse.

“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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