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Apple Cake

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Apple Cake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Apple Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Gradually add the milk and vanilla extract, mixing until combined.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then fold into the batter.

  6. For the filling, mix the grated apples, lemon zest, sugar, and flour in a saucepan.

  7. Add water and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 15 minutes.

  8. Once cool, spread the filling between the cake layers.

  9. For the frosting, mix the milk with powdered sugar until thick, then spread on top.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Vanilla + appletop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla, flour, apple. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More apple cake recipes

Dried 62Dutch 43German 12Molasses 9Filling 8Danish 4 See all 117 →

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