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Dessert

A Nice Apple Cake for Children

A simple apple cake made with flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, butter, eggs, milk, and chopped apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

A Nice Apple Cake for Children

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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

  2. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients and milk, alternating between them.

  5. Fold in the chopped apples.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, making the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, fluffy texture.
Apples
Add moisture and fruity flavor, staying tender within the baked crumb.

The step that matters

Adding eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually while mixing well lets them emulsify fully into the creamed butter and sugar. Adding them all at once can cause curdling, which may leave a coarser, denser crumb.

Swap the apple

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

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

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