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Preserve

Porcupine Cake

A cake made with butter, milk, sugar, flour, baking powder, almonds, eggs, corn starch, and vanilla, topped with a sweet almond cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Porcupine 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 cake

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  6. Let the cake cool completely.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, combine the eggs, quart of milk, sugar, corn starch, and vanilla.

  2. Cook over hot water, stirring constantly until thickened.

Assemble

  1. Once the cake is cool, stick the soft almonds on top and pour the cream over it.

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. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Almond + corntop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Eggs
Thicken the custard and add richness as they set with gentle heat.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard so it becomes smooth and spoonable.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over hot water. Stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps the eggs and starch from scorching or curdling, so the custard thickens evenly and stays smooth.

“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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