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Dessert

Apple Sauce Cake

A moist cake made with apple sauce, butter, sugar, spices, raisins, and flour.

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

Apple Sauce 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, mix the brown sugar and baking soda into the apple sauce.

  2. Cream the butter in a separate bowl, then add it to the apple sauce mixture.

  3. Stir in the cloves, raisins, ginger, cinnamon, flour, and allspice until well combined.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30 minutes 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic apple sauce and sugar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a caramel-like flavor, and helps the crumb brown.
Apple sauce
Supplies moisture and natural acidity that keeps the cake tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the apple sauce. Baking soda needs an acidic partner to react and release gas for rising. Mixing it evenly into the acidic apple sauce before adding the flour helps the cake rise uniformly rather than in pockets.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, clove, ginger, cinnamon, flour, allspice):

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Orangefits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, clove, ginger, cinnamon, flour, allspice. 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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