Skip to main content
Dessert

Food for the Gods

A sweet cake made with sugar, baking powder, nuts, crackers, dates, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Food for the Gods

Why it works: Sugar and dates work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 985 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Food for the Gods

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix sugar, baking powder, nut meats, crumbled crackers, and chopped dates.

  2. Beat the eggs separately and fold them into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered shallow tin.

  2. Bake for 45 minutes until set.

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. Sugar + datestop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together985 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Dates + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Meat + datestop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together87 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs bind the mixture and help it set into a cake structure as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become lighter in texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps brown the surface of the cake.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the cake.
Crackers
Provide starchy crumbs that add body and help bind the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the eggs. Beaten eggs hold air that gives lift. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air in the batter so the cake rises and sets evenly.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, meat, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, meat, egg. 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

Stuffed DatesStuffed Dates32 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes