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Dessert

English Walnut Cake

A moist cake with walnuts, topped with a chocolate‑egg‑white icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

English Walnut Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; 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 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

  5. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30‑35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Ice and finish

  1. For the icing, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and chocolate, mixing until smooth.

  3. Spread the icing between the layers of the cooled cake.

  4. Arrange the walnut meats on top of the cake.

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

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

  2. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour 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 structure as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a lighter crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the icing its light, airy structure.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Under-beaten whites stay runny and won't hold air, so the icing turns dense. Over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy. Stop when peaks stand upright and the whites look glossy.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, chocolate, meat. 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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