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Dessert

Small Cakes

Small cakes made with sugar, water, egg yolks, sour milk, baking soda, flour, cinnamon, vanilla, walnuts, dates, raisins, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Small Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the sugar, water, egg yolks, sour milk, baking soda, flour, cinnamon, vanilla, walnuts, dates, and raisins.

  2. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cinnamon + datestop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  5. Vanilla + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten and folded in to lighten the batter and help the cakes rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cakes rise.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter together.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour against the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Overmixing deflates the whipped egg whites and knocks out the air bubbles that lighten the batter, leading to dense, flat cakes. Fold slowly with a spatula until just combined.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, flour, cinnamon, vanilla, dates. 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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