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Dessert

Plymouth Cake

A moist, buttery cake flavored with rose water or lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Plymouth Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

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

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

  3. Add the milk and eggs, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking soda together.

  5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing gently.

  6. Add rose water or lemon for flavor.

Bake and cool

  1. Pour the batter into an ungreased cake pan.

  2. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a straw inserted comes out clean.

  3. Leave the oven door open to cool the cake gradually.

  4. If the pan has a tube, turn it upside down to cool; otherwise, set it on a rack.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Sugar
Creamed with butter to aerate the batter and adds sweetness and browning.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, even batter.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing gently. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense. Mixing just until combined keeps the crumb tender.

“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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