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Dessert

Yorkshire Spice Cake

A yeasted cake with currants, sugar, and nutmeg, baked in tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Yorkshire Spice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the salt.

  2. Rub in the butter and lard until well combined.

  3. Cream the yeast with a little sugar, then add the lukewarm water.

  4. Make a well in the center of the flour, pour in the yeast mixture, and stir in some flour to form a batter.

  5. Sprinkle a little more flour on top and let it rise in a warm place until bubbles appear.

  6. Knead the dough thoroughly, adding more water if necessary, and let it rise again.

Add the fruit and shape

  1. Once risen, work in the currants, sugar, nutmeg, and beaten eggs.

  2. Shape the dough into loaves and place in greased tins, filling them halfway.

Bake

  1. Let the loaves rise in a warm place, then bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough and absorbs the liquid to make it workable.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour particles and softening the crumb.
Lard
Shortens the dough, giving it a tender, crumbly texture.
German yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise and become light.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise. Yeast needs a warm, adequately risen dough to develop gas and lightness. Rising too briefly or in a cold place leaves the cake dense, while over-proofing can cause it to collapse.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, sugar, nutmeg. 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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