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Dessert

Dutch Apple Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, salt, apples, cinnamon, and sugar.

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

Dutch Apple Cake

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter.

  2. Gradually add the sugar.

  3. Add the well-beaten egg.

  4. Mix and sift the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  5. Add the flour alternately with the milk.

  6. Spread the mixture in a well-greased pan.

Add the apples and bake

  1. Wipe, quarter, core, and peel the apples.

  2. Cut the apples into eighths.

  3. Place the apples on the batter in rows, pressing the sharp edges into the batter.

  4. Sprinkle with the mixed sugar and cinnamon.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

  6. Serve hot with cream or a pudding sauce.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once it sets during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
Apples
Add moisture and a tart flavour that contrasts with the sweet cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the top brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Pressing the apple pieces into the batter. Pressing the sharp edges into the batter anchors the apples so they do not float or slide during baking. Firm contact also lets the batter rise around them, keeping the fruit evenly set in the cake.

Swap the apple

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

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

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