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Dessert

Huckleberry Cake

A cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, milk, cinnamon, and huckleberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Huckleberry Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

  2. Gradually add the egg yolks.

  3. Sift in the flour, adding the baking powder with the last sifting.

  4. Alternately add the sweet milk and flour to the creamed mixture.

  5. Stir in the cinnamon and the stiff-beaten egg whites.

Fold and bake

  1. Gently fold in the huckleberries, being careful not to bruise them.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until a straw 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in, they add lift and a light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture and emulsifying power that binds the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its starches set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Huckleberries
Add tart fruitiness and moisture, staying in pockets within the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the huckleberries. Overmixing or crushing the berries releases juice and colour into the batter, making it streaky and wet. Gentle folding keeps the berries whole and the crumb light.

“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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