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Dessert

Prince of Wales Cake

A two-part cake with a white batter and a dark, spiced batter containing raisins, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 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 ↓

Prince of Wales 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.

Prepare the white batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 1½ cups of sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add 1 cup of milk and mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine 2½ cups of flour, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until smooth.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat the whites of 6 eggs to a froth and gently fold them into the batter.

Make the dark batter

  1. For the dark part, cream together ¼ cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar.

  2. Stir in ½ cup of sour milk and the yolks of 3 eggs.

  3. Add 1 cup of chopped seeded raisins, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of molasses, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of cloves, and 1 teaspoon of allspice.

  4. Mix in 2 cups of flour, measured after sifting once.

Bake

  1. Layer the white and dark batters in a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or 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.

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 + 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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites beaten to a froth add lift and a light, airy crumb when folded in.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake richness and a tender texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and cream of tartar to help the cake rise.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped to a froth; stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a dense cake. Fold gently, in batches, with a spatula until just combined.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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