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Dessert

Saucer Cake for Tea

A small cake made with flour, cornflour, sugar, butter, eggs, and candied peel.

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 ↓

Saucer Cake for Tea

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Mix the all-purpose flour and cornflour together.

Make the batter

  1. Add the sugar, candied peel (cut into thin slices), butter (beaten to a cream), and whisked eggs.

  2. Beat the mixture for about 10 minutes.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake tin or a lined soup plate.

Bake and store

  1. Bake for 30 to 60 minutes until golden.

  2. Let the cake cool and store it in a covered canister.

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. Butter + eggtop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add richness and structure as the cake sets.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving a tender crumb and flavour.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Cornflour
Softens the flour's gluten, giving the cake a finer, more tender texture.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
Candied orange or lemon peel
Adds citrus aroma and flavour through the batter.

The step that matters

Beating the mixture for about 10 minutes. Beating creamed butter, sugar and eggs incorporates air that helps the cake rise and gives a light, even crumb. Under-beating leaves a dense cake, while over-mixing once flour is added can toughen it.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, 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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