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A sweet cake made with brown sugar, Indian meal, eggs, butter, and wheat flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cakes

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. Gather all ingredients together before baking.

  2. Sift the flour and roll the sugar.

  3. Beat the eggs until well mixed.

  4. In winter, soften the butter but do not melt it.

Mix and bake

  1. Mix all ingredients together using a wooden spoon.

  2. Bake the cake as soon as it is mixed, in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  3. Do not add fruit until ready to bake; spread it on top only.

  4. For long baking, line the pan with buttered paper.

Test for doneness

  1. To test if done, insert a clean straw; if it comes out clean, the cake is done.

  2. Listen for a hissing sound to confirm doneness.

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. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps give the cake a soft, dense crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Indian meal
Forms the main body of the cake, giving it structure and a coarse, grainy texture.
Wheat flour
Adds structure, helping the cake hold its shape as it sets.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour; softened rather than melted so it stays workable.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness with a straw. Eggs and starch set as the cake bakes, and a centre that is still wet will sink or collapse once cooled. A clean straw inserted into the middle shows the batter has set through.

“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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