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Dessert

South Carolina Cake

A moist raisin cake flavored with brandy, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

South Carolina Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

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

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.

  4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.

  5. Stir in the brandy and raisins until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed butter hold air for a lighter crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Eggs
Add structure, binding and moisture to the batter as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness scattered through the crumb.

The step that matters

Alternating the flour mixture with the milk. Adding flour in portions alternated with liquid keeps the batter emulsified and prevents overmixing, which would develop gluten and make the cake tough.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Apricotfits less well

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