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Dessert

Indian Loaf Cake

A yeasted cake made with powdered sugar, milk, butter, salt, yellow Indian meal, eggs, and yeast, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Indian Loaf Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Mix powdered sugar with milk.

  2. Cut butter into the mixture, adding salt.

  3. Heat mixture in a covered pan until scalding hot.

  4. Gradually stir in enough sifted yellow Indian meal to achieve a thick, mush-like consistency.

  5. Beat mixture vigorously for 15 minutes.

  6. Set aside to cool.

  7. Once warm (like new milk), beat eggs lightly.

  8. Stir eggs into mixture.

  9. Add yeast.

  10. Beat mixture for another 15 minutes.

Rise and bake

  1. Prepare a well-buttered tin mold or earthen pan with a pipe in the center.

  2. Pour mixture into mold.

  3. Cover it.

  4. Let it rise in a warm place for about 4 hours.

  5. Bake in preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

  6. Turn cake out with broad surface downwards.

  7. Serve hot, sliced with butter.

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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Yellow indian meal
Forms the thick, mush-like body that gives the cake its structure.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, lightening the batter before baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the meal and gives moisture.

The step that matters

Beat mixture vigorously for 15 minutes. Long beating works air into the thick batter and develops an even texture. Adding the yeast and eggs only after the mixture has cooled to warm keeps the heat from killing the yeast.

“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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