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Dessert

Drop Cakes

Drop cakes are quick cakes made with lard or butter, brown sugar, eggs, sweet milk, spices, raisins, walnuts, and flour.

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

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Drop Cakes

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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the lard or butter and brown sugar.

  3. Beat in the eggs, then mix in the sweet milk.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, baking powder, spices, and flour.

  2. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

  3. Fold in the raisins and walnut meats.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto greased and floured baking sheets.

  2. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Lard or butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cakes a tender, rich texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses helps the cakes brown.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cakes set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to lift the cakes and lighten their crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together and keeps them from spreading.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Stirring only until combined keeps gluten development low, so the cakes stay tender rather than tough. Enough flour is needed so the drops hold their shape and do not spread.

Swap the walnut

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

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

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

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