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Dessert

Afternoon Cakes

A simple baked cake made with flour, baking powder, margarine, sultanas, sugar, egg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Afternoon Cakes

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour and baking powder.

  3. Rub in the margarine until well combined.

  4. Add the sugar and sultanas, then mix in the beaten egg.

  5. If the mixture is too dry, add a little milk.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough into four cakes.

  2. Place the cakes on a floured baking sheet.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the cakes as its proteins and starch set when baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the cakes rise and become light.
Margarine
Rubbed into the flour to add fat, giving a tender, crumbly texture.
Egg
Binds the dough together and adds richness and structure.
Sultanas
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the cakes.

The step that matters

Adding milk to the dough. Milk should be added only if the mixture is too dry. Too much liquid makes the dough sticky and hard to shape, while too little leaves the cakes crumbly. Adding it gradually lets you judge the dough's texture.

“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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