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Dessert

Prince of Wales Cake

A sweet cake made with egg yolks, brown sugar, butter, molasses, sour milk, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Prince of Wales 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and egg white (or whole eggs).

  2. Add brown sugar, butter, molasses, and sour milk; mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder, and flour.

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

Bake

  1. Divide the batter into 3 layers and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 the cake sets in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the layers together after baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas, lifting the layers.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich mouthfeel in the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Sour milk
Supplies acidity to activate the baking soda and tenderize the crumb.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.. Adding dry ingredients slowly and stirring only until combined keeps the batter smooth and lets the baking soda react evenly. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the layers tough and dense.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, molasses, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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