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Dessert

Dutch Apple Cake

A baked apple cake with a buttery batter and spiced apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat the sugar and butter together until thoroughly combined.

  3. Sift the flour once, measure, add baking soda, and sift three times.

  4. Beat the egg until frothy, add cream of tartar, and mix well.

  5. Combine the egg mixture with the butter and sugar, then add the milk and flour, stirring until smooth.

Top and bake

  1. Pare and cut the apples into eighths, then arrange them on top of the batter in rows.

  2. Sprinkle sugar and a little cinnamon over the apples.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, then increase the heat slightly and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to add fat and tenderness to the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so baking soda reacts and helps the cake rise.
Apples
Release moisture and sweet-tart flavor as they bake into the cake.

The step that matters

Sifting and combining the leavening with the flour. Baking soda must be evenly distributed through the flour and then meet the acid in the batter to release gas. Uneven mixing leaves dense pockets or bitter spots, so the rise becomes uneven.

Swap the apple

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

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

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