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Dessert

Boston Cake

Boston Cake is a sweet baked loaf made with sugar, butter, eggs, flour, corn starch, milk, baking powder, salt, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Boston 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 together the sugar and butter.

  2. Break in one egg and beat well.

  3. Sift the flour three times.

  4. Add salt, baking powder, and corn starch on the last sift.

  5. Add a little of the flour mixture to the butter mixture.

  6. Stir in the second egg and the milk.

  7. Finally, add the remaining flour and the vanilla.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) in a loaf or two layers.

  2. If using layers, frost with chocolate frosting and cream filling.

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, tenderising the crumb and carrying flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while keeping the crumb tender.
Pastry flour
Provides the structure of the cake; low protein keeps the crumb fine and tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to lift the cake as it bakes.
Corn starch
Lightens the flour mixture, producing a softer, more tender crumb.

The step that matters

Adding the remaining flour and vanilla last. Mixing flour after the eggs and milk is in can overdevelop gluten and toughen the cake. Adding the final flour gently and stopping once combined keeps the crumb tender.

“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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