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Dessert

Dutch Apple Cake

A simple apple cake with a crumbly butter batter, topped with sliced apples and a sugar‑cinnamon sprinkle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Dutch Apple Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  4. Add the milk and beaten egg, and mix until just combined.

  5. Spread the batter in greased shallow pans.

Top and bake

  1. Pare, core, and slice the apples, then arrange them in rows on top of the batter, pressing them in slightly.

  2. Sprinkle the top with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

  3. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

  4. Serve with sauce.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Forms the main structure of the cake batter.
Butter
Cut into the flour to add tenderness and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets.
Apples
Add moisture and tartness, and soften as they bake on top.

The step that matters

Cutting in the butter. The butter should stay in coarse, distinct crumbs rather than melting or fully blending into the flour. Cold fat pieces create small pockets of steam during baking, giving a lighter, more tender crumb.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

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