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Dessert

Shrewsbury Cakes

A sweet, buttery cake made with flour, powdered sugar, caraway seeds, eggs, and butter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Shrewsbury Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Mix flour, powdered sugar, and caraway seeds in a bowl.

  2. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  3. Combine the egg whites with the flour mixture, then add the yolks.

  4. Gradually work in the melted butter until a stiff paste forms.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough to a thickness slightly thicker than a half-crown coin.

  2. Sprinkle pounded sugar over the rolled dough.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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 + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter 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
Provides the structure that holds the shortbread together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that coats flour particles, giving a tender, crumbly texture and rich flavor.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the dough so it holds together when rolled.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the dough and dissolves easily, giving a fine, smooth crumb.
Caraway seeds
Contribute a distinctive aromatic, slightly spicy flavor to the dough.

The step that matters

Gradually work in the melted butter until a stiff paste forms. Melted butter coats the flour and limits gluten development, so the shortbread stays tender. Adding it all at once or overworking the dough can make it greasy or tough.

“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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