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Dessert

Apple Sauce Cake

A baked cake made with unsweetened apple sauce, sugar, butter, molasses, raisins, currants, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Apple Sauce 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  3. Add the apple sauce, black strap molasses, and lemon zest. Mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Stir until just combined.

  6. Fold in the raisins and currants.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased milk pan.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

  3. Insert a toothpick into the center; if it comes out clean, the cake is done.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  2. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Apple + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness through fat that coats the flour.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moist.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic apple sauce and molasses to lift the batter.
Apple sauce
Adds moisture and fruit flavor, helping the cake stay tender.

The step that matters

Stir until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to develop; overmixing makes the cake tough and dense, so stop as soon as no dry streaks remain.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sauce, sugar, butter, molasses, raisin, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sauce, sugar, butter, molasses, raisin, 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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