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Dessert

Maraschino Cherry Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, sugar, shortening, eggs, milk, baking powder, vanilla, and maraschino cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Maraschino Cherry Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the shortening and gradually add the sugar.

  2. Beat the egg yolks until thick and add to the mixture.

  3. Mix and sift the dry ingredients, then add them alternately with the milk.

  4. Stir in the vanilla extract.

  5. Drain and dry the cherries on a towel, then fold them into the batter.

  6. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in 3 well-greased layers at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Frost with boiled frosting and decorate with cherries.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Shortening
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, fine crumb.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and structure, while whipped whites lighten the batter for rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise in the oven.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour and dissolves sugar, giving the batter its moisture and body.
Red maraschino cherries
Add sweetness, flavor and moist pockets within the crumb.

The step that matters

Drain and dry the cherries before folding. Cherries carry syrup and surface moisture; excess liquid thins the batter and can make the layers gummy or cause the cherries to bleed color and sink.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

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