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Dessert

A Dover Cake

A sweet cake made with milk, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, spices, brandy, rose-water, and optional raisins and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

A Dover Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the pearl-ash in a little vinegar.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Gradually add the spices and liquor to the butter mixture.

  4. Beat the eggs until light and stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour.

  5. Gradually add the milk and mix thoroughly.

  6. If using, flour the raisins and currants well and stir them in at the end.

Bake and keep

  1. Butter a large tin pan and pour in the mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 2 hours, until thick.

  3. Wrap the cake in a thick cloth to keep it moist and fresh for up to two weeks.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Brandy + rosetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together560 recipes

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

Flour and butter 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
Beaten eggs add structure and lift, helping the batter set into a firm crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as the batter bakes.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps give a light texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it bakes evenly.
Pearl-ash
Dissolved in vinegar, it reacts to help the cake rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs alternately with the flour. Adding eggs and flour in turns keeps the batter smooth and emulsified, so it does not curdle and the flour blends in evenly for an even 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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