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Dessert

Dolly Varden Cake

A layered cake with a white batter and a dark batter containing raisins, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 ↓

Dolly Varden 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batters

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together 5 eggs, ¾ cup butter, and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Gradually add 3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ¾ cup water, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, beat 4 egg yolks with 1 cup sugar, then add 2 cups flour, ½ cup butter, and ½ cup water.

  5. Stir in 1 pound of raisins or currants, ½ cup brandy, and spices to taste.

Bake

  1. Layer the white and dark batter in a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Build structure and richness as they are beaten into the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour in the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed batter turn light and fluffy.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and helps stabilise the beaten eggs and rising.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cake.

The step that matters

Layering the white and dark batter. The two batters differ in colour and density, so layering them carefully in the pan keeps the cake's marbled look and even rise. Stirring them together would lose the contrast.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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