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Dessert

Westphalian Butter Cakes

A buttery cake made with flour, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, milk, and butter, dusted with sugar, cinnamon, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Westphalian Butter Cakes

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. Sift the flour into a large bowl.

  2. Add the sugar and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add them to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the milk and melted butter, then mix until smooth.

Top and rise

  1. Spread the batter onto buttered pans and let it rise.

  2. Butter the tops, then dust with sugar, cinnamon, and chopped nuts.

  3. Prick the surface with a fork in several places.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  2. Serve hot, cut into slices for lunch or tea.

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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and set during baking, giving the cake its structure and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour, and helps keep the cake moist.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the top brown during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter, loosening it and keeping the crumb soft.

The step that matters

Bake until done. This batter is rich in eggs and butter, so it needs enough heat and time for the eggs to set through the centre. Underbaking leaves a wet, dense middle, while the outside can brown too early.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Milletfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, lemon, milk, butter, 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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