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Dessert

Tea Cakes

A yeasted cake made with butter, milk, flour, and eggs, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Tea 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 the dough

  1. Sift and warm the flour in a basin.

  2. Add the butter and salt to the flour.

  3. Beat the egg in the warm milk, then stir in the yeast.

  4. Pour the milk mixture into the flour and mix into a smooth paste, kneading well.

  5. Place the basin near a warm spot until the batter rises.

Shape and rise

  1. Shape the risen batter into cakes and place them on tins.

  2. Let the cakes rise again for about 10 minutes.

  3. Brush the tops with a little warm milk.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  2. Serve buttered and very hot.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 structure of the dough that traps gas and sets when baked.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the batter rise and gives the cakes a light, airy crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and contributes richness and flavour.
Egg
Adds protein for structure and richness, helping the cakes hold their shape.
Milk
Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and yeast, and browns the tops when brushed.

The step that matters

Pour the milk mixture into the flour and mix into a smooth paste, kneading well. Thorough mixing and kneading develops gluten, giving the dough the elasticity to hold gas from the yeast so the cakes rise well instead of collapsing or staying dense.

“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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