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Dessert

Layer Cake

Layer Cake is a multi-layered cake with raisin and walnut filling, topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Layer Cake

Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Layer 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.

Prepare

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

Make the layers

  1. In a bowl, mix sugar, baking powder, milk, melted butter, flour, and eggs until smooth.

  2. Divide the batter into three layers and bake until golden.

Make the filling and assemble

  1. For the filling, combine raisins, sherry or port wine, egg yolks, walnuts, and vanilla.

  2. Spread the filling between the layers, sprinkling a little sugar on each layer.

  3. Whip the egg whites and use them for the top frosting.

  4. Garnish with nut meat.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + walnuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake layers as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer crumb in the layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the layers and helps them brown as they bake.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness to the filling.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites for the top frosting. Egg whites only hold their volume when beaten to stiff peaks without any trace of yolk or grease. Any residue from the yolks or bowl can stop them from whipping properly, leaving a loose, collapsing topping.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

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