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Dessert

Imperial Cake

A dense cake made with butter, sugar, milk, eggs, flour, dates, walnuts, citron, baking powder, vanilla, and cinnamon oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the milk and eggs, mixing well.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour, baking powder, dates, walnuts, citron, vanilla, and cinnamon oil.

  4. Pour the batter into an angel food cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 to 1.5 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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. Milk + vanillatop 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. Dates + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Dates + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness as they set in the oven, binding the batter.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once heated and set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise during baking.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy batter when creamed with butter.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the finished cake.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness. Baking time varies with pan and oven, so the cake can dry out if overbaked or stay gummy if underbaked. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean before removing it from the oven.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Datesthe original

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