Skip to main content
Dessert

Apple Cake, or German Tart

A baked tart of apples in a buttery pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Cake, or German Tart

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pastry

  1. In a bowl, work together the butter and flour until they resemble fine bread crumbs.

  2. Add a pinch of salt.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks.

  4. Add enough water to form a firm, smooth paste.

Line the mold

  1. Butter a plain tin cake or pie mold generously.

  2. Roll out the paste thinly.

  3. Place the mold on the paste and trim to size.

  4. Cover the bottom of the mold with the paste.

  5. Cut a band for the sides.

  6. Press the band around the edges, moistening with egg or water to seal.

Make the filling and bake

  1. In a pot, boil the apples with the powdered sugar, lemon juice, fresh butter, and cinnamon over low heat.

  2. Increase the heat until smooth and dry.

  3. Cool the marmalade completely before filling the mold.

  4. Roll out a cover for the tart.

  5. Lay the cover over the cooled marmalade.

  6. Seal the edges.

  7. Trim any excess paste.

  8. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Creates a tender, crumbly texture in the pastry and rich flavor in the filling.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the pastry paste.
Egg yolks
Add richness and bind the pastry into a smooth dough.
Apples
Cook down into the fruit filling, providing the body and flavor of the tart.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the apple filling and helps it thicken as it is reduced.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the apples.

The step that matters

Increase the heat until smooth and dry. The apple mixture must cook down until it is thick and free of excess liquid. If it stays wet, the filling will be runny and may soak the pastry base.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, sugar, lemon, cinnamon. 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