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Dessert

Cakes, Tea

A yeast‑leavened cake made with flour, yeast, milk, egg, butter, and water, brushed with milk and caster sugar, baked and served with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cakes, Tea

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Make a well in the center of the flour.

  2. Mix the yeast with the tepid milk.

  3. Stir the beaten egg and melted butter into the warm water.

  4. Pour this mixture into the well in the flour, gathering in some flour to create a pool of batter.

  5. Sprinkle a little flour over the batter, cover with a cloth, and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

  6. Knead the dough lightly, adding more milk if needed.

  7. Cut the dough across with a sharp knife and let it rise again for 30 minutes.

Shape and bake

  1. Turn the dough onto a floured surface.

  2. Roll it out to 1 inch thick.

  3. Cut into rounds.

  4. Set the rounds on a floured tin to rise for 10 minutes.

  5. Brush with milk and caster sugar.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F) for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Slice.

  2. Toast lightly.

  3. Butter.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough, setting the crumb once baked.
German yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise and gives it a light, airy texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the dough, and browns the top when brushed on.
Egg
Adds richness and structure, helping bind the dough and give a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tenderness and flavor.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce gas; rising too briefly leaves the cake dense, while the second rise gives a lighter texture after shaping.

“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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