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Indian Loaf Cake

A yeast‑leavened cake made with powdered sugar, milk, butter, salt, yellow Indian meal, eggs, and strong yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Indian Loaf 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.

Make the batter

  1. Mix powdered sugar with milk in a saucepan and add butter and salt.

  2. Heat the mixture until scalding hot.

  3. Remove the mixture from heat.

  4. Gradually stir in enough yellow Indian meal to achieve a thick mush consistency.

  5. Beat the mixture vigorously for 15 minutes.

  6. Let the mixture cool.

  7. Wait until the mixture is warm (like new milk).

  8. Beat in the eggs gradually.

  9. Add the yeast.

  10. Beat the mixture for another 15 minutes.

Rise and bake

  1. Prepare a well-buttered tin mold or earthen pan with a center pipe.

  2. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  3. Cover the mold.

  4. Let the mixture rise in a warm place for about 4 hours.

  5. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

  6. Turn the cake out with the broad surface down.

  7. Serve hot.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
Yeast
Produces gas during the rise, lightening the cake's texture.
Yellow indian meal
Forms the thick mush that gives the cake its body and structure.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Powdered white sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning in the baked crust.
Rich milk
Provides the liquid that hydrates the meal and gives moisture.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture to warm before adding the yeast and eggs. Yeast is killed by very hot liquid, so the mixture must be warm, not scalding, before adding it. Adding eggs to a hot mixture can also cook them unevenly. Cooling to a warm, milk-like temperature keeps the yeast active for the rise.

“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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