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Dessert

Apple Spiced Cake

A moist loaf cake made with apple sauce, raisins, walnuts, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Spiced Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Stir in the hot sour apple sauce.

  3. Add the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt; mix well.

  4. Fold in the chopped raisins and walnuts.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda, then gradually add to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake until done.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, creaming with sugar traps air for a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
Sour apple sauce
Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the crumb tender and flavorful.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic apple sauce to lift and lighten the batter.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the soft cake.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and baking soda. Mixing the flour in gently and only until combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender rather than tough. Baking soda must be evenly distributed to rise properly with the acidic apple sauce.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, sauce, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applethe original
  4. Lemonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, sauce, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, raisin. 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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