Skip to main content
Dessert

English Seed-cake

A yeasted cake with milk, butter, sugar, eggs, nutmeg, caraway seeds, currants, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 200 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

English Seed-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 dough

  1. In a bowl, combine warm milk and melted butter.

  2. Add yeast, sugar, and eggs; mix to form a light sponge.

  3. Once light, stir in nutmeg, caraway seeds, and currants.

  4. Mix into a stiff dough that can be handled on a floured surface.

  5. Return the dough to the bowl and let it rise again until very light.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape into rusks or a loaf, adding enough flour to handle it.

  2. Place in baking pans and let rise before baking.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Nutmeg + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  4. Tea + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Produces gas that makes the sponge and dough rise and gives a light crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the crumb set and hold its lift.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavour in the crumb.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the baked crust.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour and provides the liquid that forms the dough.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise again until very light. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for a light crumb. Underproofed dough bakes dense, while the structure needs to hold the gas before baking.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, tea, butter, sugar, egg, nutmeg, caraway. 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.

You might also like

Red Currant JellyRed Currant Jelly65 recipesCurrant Ice CreamCurrant Ice Cream32 recipesCurrant SherbetCurrant Sherbet9 recipesCurrant and Raspberry IceCurrant and Raspberry Ice7 recipes