Skip to main content
Dessert

Aunt Hettie's Loaf Cake

A moist loaf cake with raisins, nutmeg, and a light, airy texture.

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

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 ↓

Aunt Hettie's Loaf 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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Beat the egg whites separately until stiff.

  3. Mix the egg yolks with the creamed sugar and butter.

  4. Stir in 3 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar.

  5. Add 1 cup of sweet milk and the beaten egg whites, then stir again.

Add the spices and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, and the grated nutmeg.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in 4 tablespoons of water and add to the mixture.

  3. Fold in the dredged raisins or currants.

  4. Pour the batter into two loaf pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air that helps the cake rise, while yolks add richness and structure.
Flour
Its proteins set during baking to give the loaf its structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds fat for a tender crumb.
Cream of tartar
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas for rising.
Raisins or currants
Add pockets of sweetness and chewy texture throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Add the beaten egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air that helps the loaf rise. Vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a denser cake.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Jalapenofits less well

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

More raisin loaf cake recipes

Currant 7 See all 19 →

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes