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Dessert

Cherry Cake

A simple cake made with eggs, sugar, margarine, flour, baking powder, and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Cherry Cake

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).

Make the batter

  1. Cream the margarine and caster sugar together.

  2. Add the egg and beat briskly.

  3. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then beat for 7 minutes.

  4. Fold in the chopped cherries.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased cake tin.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Margarine
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds fat for a tender crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Glace cherries
Add sweetness and fruity flavour, with pieces distributed through the crumb.

The step that matters

Sift in the flour and baking powder, then beat for 7 minutes. Overbeating once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense. Beating for a set time at this stage risks a chewy texture, so mix only until combined.

“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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