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Dessert

Washington Birthday Cake

A light cake with almond extract, frosted with powdered sugar and topped with citron and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Washington Birthday 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.

Make the cake

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl.

  2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  3. Add the dry ingredients and milk alternately to the creamed mixture, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and almond extract.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 18 to 20 minutes.

  6. Cut the cake into squares once cooled.

Make the frosting and decorate

  1. For the frosting, combine boiling water and powdered sugar, mixing until the sugar is soft.

  2. Add the 2 eggs to the frosting mixture and mix well.

  3. Decorate the cake with frosting, citron, and cherries in the shape of a bunch.

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 + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they trap air that helps the cake rise and stay light.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the batter.
Cream of tartar
Acidic ingredient that stabilizes whipped whites and reacts with baking soda to help rising.
Milk
Adds moisture and softens the batter so it bakes evenly.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when whipped stiff and not overmixed or deflated. Folding gently keeps the trapped air, which is what lifts the cake's crumb.

“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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