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Dessert

Graham Bread Cake

A sweet cake made from Graham bread dough, raisins, sugar, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Graham Bread Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Dredge the raisins or currants with flour.

  2. If using currants, wash and dry them first.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add the cream.

  2. Stir the yolk mixture into the dough until well mixed.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and fold them into the dough.

  4. Gently stir in the fruit.

  5. Pour the mixture into a well-oiled shallow pan and let it rise in a warm place.

Bake

  1. Once risen, bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Light yeast dough
Provides the risen, airy base that gives the cake its structure and rise.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and moisture, while whipped whites add lightness and help the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and adds tenderness and gentle browning in the oven.
Seedless raisins or currants
Add pockets of sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the cake.
Thick sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the crumb a softer, moister texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites beaten to a stiff froth trap air that lifts the batter. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so the cake comes out denser. Fold gently to keep the lift.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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