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Dessert

Huckleberry Cake

A sweet cake made with huckleberries, sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Huckleberry Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour with the cream of tartar.

  3. In another bowl, combine the milk with the baking soda and beat thoroughly.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the sugar, butter, and egg together until smooth.

  2. Add the milk mixture to the sugar mixture and stir well.

  3. Gradually add sifted flour until you achieve a stiff batter.

  4. Fold in the dried huckleberries.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas that makes the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic partner to baking soda, helping the leavening react and rise evenly.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and moisture.
Dried huckleberries
Add fruity flavor and chewy pockets throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Combine the milk with the baking soda and beat thoroughly. Baking soda needs to be fully dispersed so it reacts evenly with the acid in the batter. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that can taste bitter and cause uneven rising.

“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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