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Baking

Currant Cake

A baked cake made with pastry flour, butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, milk, and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Currant 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

  1. Sift together the flour and baking powder.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together, adding the sugar gradually.

  2. Mix in the egg yolks and vanilla extract.

  3. Add the milk alternately with the flour mixture.

  4. Fold in the cleaned and floured currants.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 50 minutes.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Pastry flour
Provides the starch and gluten structure that sets the crumb of the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps incorporate air for a lighter texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness, emulsify the batter, and help bind the structure as it sets.
Currants
Add tart, fruity pockets of flavour and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the cleaned and floured currants. Flouring the currants helps suspend them evenly instead of letting them sink to the bottom. Folding gently keeps the batter's trapped air intact so the cake stays light.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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