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Dessert

Loaf Cake

A loaf cake with a lemon jelly filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Loaf 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 cake batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg whites and mix well.

  4. Stir in the sweet milk and vanilla.

  5. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.

  6. Pour the batter into two greased cake pans.

  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the lemon jelly

  1. For the lemon jelly, combine 1 cup sugar, juice of 1 lemon, yolk of 1 egg, cold water, and cornstarch in a saucepan.

  2. Boil until thick, stirring constantly.

Assemble

  1. Once the cakes are cool, layer them with the lemon jelly in the center.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift to the batter as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become airy.
Egg yolk
Thickens the lemon jelly along with the cornstarch, adding richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the lemon jelly when boiled, giving it a smooth, set texture.

The step that matters

Boil the lemon jelly until thick while stirring constantly. Cornstarch must be boiled to fully thicken, and constant stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the saucepan. The egg yolk can curdle if overheated or left unstirred, so the mixture needs steady attention.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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

More loaf cake recipes

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