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Dessert

Date Cake

A baked cake made with eggs, sour cream, butter, dates, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Date 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 ↓

Date 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.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sour cream together.

  2. Add the sugar and baking soda, and mix well.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour and chopped dates until combined.

  4. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  5. Add the sweet milk, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour, mixing until smooth.

Combine and bake

  1. Combine both mixtures and add flavoring as desired.

  2. Pour into a greased baking pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) 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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and a tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with baking soda to help the cake rise.

The step that matters

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beating air into the butter and sugar creates tiny air pockets that help the cake rise and give a lighter crumb. Underbeating leaves the cake denser, while the step should still be done before the other batter is added.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Datesthe original

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