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Dessert

Loaf Cake

A sweet loaf cake made with bread dough, butter, sugar, raisins, currants, eggs, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Loaf 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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

  3. Stir in the bread dough until combined.

  4. Add the spices and brandy, mixing thoroughly.

  5. If the dough is very soft, add an extra cup of flour.

Rise and bake

  1. Grease a pan and pour in the mixture.

  2. Let it rise for 4 hours.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Bread dough
Provides the yeasted base and structure that the loaf rises and sets around.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing tenderness and a soft crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the loaf bind and set as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas that lightens the crumb.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Let it rise for 4 hours. Yeast needs time to ferment and build gas bubbles, which give the loaf its light, open texture. Rising too short leaves a dense crumb, and the dough should be allowed to fully proof before it goes into the oven.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, sugar, raisin, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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.

More loaf cake recipes

Chocolate 35French 25Raisin 19Indian 17Coconut 16Plain 13 See all 114 →

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