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Dessert

Cebam Nut Cake

A nut cake with a sour cream and sugar filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cebam Nut 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 batter

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

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

  3. Add the flour, baking powder, sweet milk, egg whites, and cornstarch. Mix well.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine sour cream, sugar, chopped nuts, and vanilla in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the filling until thick, then let it cool.

Assemble

  1. Once the cake is baked and cooled, spread the filling on top.

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. 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. Nuts + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich in flavor.
Egg whites
Add protein that helps set the batter and give it lift.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Cornstarch
Softens the crumb by diluting gluten, giving a finer, more tender texture.
Sour cream
Contributes moisture and tang, and thickens the filling as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil the filling until thick. The filling thickens as its sugar and dairy concentrate and firm up on cooking. Undercooked filling stays runny and may not hold on top of the cake, while overcooked filling can scorch and taste bitter.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

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

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