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Dessert

Graham Cake

A sweet cake made with graham flour, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Graham Cake

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Graham Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the brown sugar and melted butter together until light.

  3. Add the beaten egg and mix well.

  4. Stir the baking soda into the sour milk until dissolved, then add it to the sugar and egg mixture.

  5. Sift the ground cloves and cinnamon with 1 cup of flour, then add this to the mixture.

  6. Add enough graham flour to create a moderately thick batter.

  7. Seed and chop the raisins, dust them with a little flour, and fold them into the batter.

  8. Beat the batter vigorously for 5 minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for 45 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.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sour milk
Reacts with baking soda to produce gas that lightens the cake's crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to leaven the batter so it rises.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and moisture to the crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavor, and helps browning.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Graham flour
Provides body and structure, thickening the batter to a moderately thick consistency.

The step that matters

Stirring the baking soda into the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react with; it should be fully dissolved in the sour milk so gas forms evenly and the cake rises uniformly rather than in pockets.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

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