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Baking

Soda Cake

A quick cake made with flour, butter, currants, sugar, citrus peel, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Soda Cake

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 ↓

Soda 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of milk in a saucer.

  2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, currants, and chopped peel.

  3. Melt the dripping slightly and beat it until creamy.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the melted dripping, alternating with the remaining milk, while beating well.

  5. Add the dissolved baking soda and stir to combine.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased tin, covering the top with greased paper to allow the cake to rise.

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

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Currant + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Flour and butter 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Dripping
Adds fat for a tender, moist crumb and rich flavour.
Milk
Moistens the dry ingredients and helps form a smooth batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown lightly during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in milk before adding it. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed evenly so it reacts throughout the batter. Undissolved pockets can cause bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, 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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