Skip to main content
Dessert

Layer Cake

A layered cake with sweet cream batter and apple filling, topped with tart jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Layer Cake

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Layer Cake

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add the sweet cream.

  3. Stir in the sifted Graham flour and white flour until smooth.

  4. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the batter along with the dissolved baking soda.

  5. Grease the cake tins and pour in the batter, which should be thick enough for griddle cakes.

  6. Bake until the cake layers are done, about 20-25 minutes.

Make the filling and assemble

  1. Once cooled, spread tart jelly or fruit juice between the layers.

  2. For the filling, beat together one egg (or two egg whites), ½ cup sugar, and lemon juice.

  3. Grate the apples and stir them into the egg mixture, then heat until hot.

  4. Cool the filling and spread it between the cake layers.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whipped whites give the batter structure and lift as the cake bakes.
Graham flour
Provides the body and nutty texture of the cake layers.
White flour
Adds softness and structure alongside the Graham flour.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and moisture to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the batter to help the cake layers rise and lighten.
Apples
Grated into the filling to add moisture and fruity flavor.

The step that matters

Heating the apple and egg filling. The egg mixture must be heated until hot so the eggs thicken and cook safely. Once cooled, it sets into a spreadable filling rather than staying runny.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour, sugar, egg, lemon, milk, corn. 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes