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Dessert

Eggless Plum Cake

A no‑egg cake made with butter, brown sugar, sour milk, spices, raisins, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Eggless Plum 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. Cream the butter and light brown sugar together until smooth.

  2. Add the sour milk and baking soda, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

  4. Fold in the dredged raisins and flour mixed with a pinch of baking powder.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 45 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda so the cake rises and softens.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas that lifts the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Light brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a molasses-like depth.

The step that matters

Folding in the dredged raisins and flour. Over-mixing once flour is added develops gluten and toughens the cake. Dredging raisins in flour keeps them suspended in the batter rather than sinking to the bottom while it bakes.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice. 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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