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Dessert

Porcupine Cake

A sweet cake made with sugar, butter, lard, water, flour, baking powder, egg, almonds, milk, and a cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Porcupine Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar, butter, and lard until combined.

  3. Add cold water and mix well.

  4. Stir in flour and Royal Baking Powder.

  5. Fold in the well beaten egg.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  7. Bake until golden brown.

Make the cream and finish

  1. For the cream, heat milk to boiling.

  2. Mix ½ cup sugar with corn starch and add to the milk.

  3. Add 1 egg, salt, and flavoring to the mixture.

  4. Pour the cream over the cake and top with soft almonds before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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 batter as it sets in the oven.
Butter and lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, crumbly texture.
Royal baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it cooks.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream so it sets smoothly rather than running.
Soft almonds
Adds nutty flavor and a soft, contrasting texture on top.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream. Corn starch must be mixed with sugar and stirred into hot milk so it thickens evenly without lumps. Once the milk is boiling, the starch gelatinizes and sets the cream, so it should be added while the milk is still hot and stirred steadily.

“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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