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Dessert

Cinnamon Cake and Rusks

A yeast-based cinnamon cake and rusks made with butter, lard, molasses, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cinnamon Cake and Rusks

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Make a well in the flour and add the lukewarm milk and homemade yeast.

  2. Stir in enough flour to create a thick batter that drops heavily from a spoon.

  3. Let it rise until it begins to fall in the center, about 6 hours.

  4. Add salt, melted butter and lard, sugar, and eggs to the mixture.

  5. Work in enough flour to form a soft dough and let it rise until doubled in size.

  6. Lightly work the dough into a lump and let it rise again.

Shape and glaze

  1. Pull off small portions and shape them into rusks.

  2. Brush the tops with a mixture of molasses and milk, then let them rise again.

  3. Shape the remaining dough into large cakes.

  4. Before baking, spread the cakes with a mixture of butter, sugar, and a little cinnamon.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 30 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure and chew.
Homemade yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter and dough rise and gives a light texture.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind and structure the enriched dough.
Butter and lard
Add fat that softens the crumb and gives a tender texture.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the baked crust.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and color to the glazed tops as they bake.

The step that matters

Rising the batter before shaping. Yeast needs time to ferment the batter until it is airy and begins to fall in the center. Under-rising leaves dense rusks and cakes, while over-rising can collapse the structure before baking.

“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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