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Dessert

Drop Cakes

A coconut drop cake made with butter, flour, milk, coconut, bread, sugar, lemon zest, eggs, cinnamon, and Curacao.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Drop Cakes

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Drop 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.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Add ½ cup of water and ½ cup of milk.

  4. Bring to a boil while stirring.

  5. Simmer gently for 5 minutes.

Make the coconut mixture

  1. Heat the remaining milk.

  2. Pour it over the coconut.

  3. Add the sifted brown bread, sugar, and lemon zest.

  4. Cover and let it stand for 10 minutes.

Combine and bake

  1. Add the egg yolks to the saucepan.

  2. Stir until thickened.

  3. Mix in the coconut mixture, cinnamon, and Curacao.

  4. Fold in the stiffly whisked egg whites gently.

  5. Pour into a well-buttered mold or souffle tin.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour.

  7. Serve with a sweet sauce or fruit syrup.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks and folded in, they lighten the batter and help it rise.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm mixture and add richness and structure as they set.
Flour
Cooked with butter and liquid, it forms a thickened base that gives the cakes body.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, chewy texture and coconut flavor to the batter.
Brown bread
Soaks up the liquid and adds bulk and a toasty, earthy flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the base and helps prevent sticking in the mold.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Stiffly whisked egg whites trap air that gives the cakes lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the cakes bake up dense and flat.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, coconut, bread, sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, coconut, bread, sugar, egg. 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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