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Dessert

Apple Cake

A moist cake made with soaked dried apples, molasses, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Apple Cake

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple 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.

Prepare the apples

  1. Simmer the soaked dried apples in 1½ cups of molasses until tender.

  2. Let the mixture cool, then add the egg, sugar, sweet milk, butter, and molasses.

Make and bake the cake

  1. Mix in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined.

  2. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  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

Dried apples
Provide the main fruit flavour and soft, moist pieces throughout the cake.
Molasses
Adds dark colour, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Egg
Binds the batter and gives the cake structure as it sets.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Butter
Adds richness, tenderness and fat that carries flavour.

The step that matters

Cooling the apple mixture before adding the egg. Adding the egg to a hot mixture can scramble it and cause uneven texture. Letting the mixture cool first keeps the egg smooth so it blends evenly into the batter.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, sugar, milk, butter, flour, 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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Dried 62Dutch 43German 12Molasses 9Filling 8Danish 4 See all 117 →

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