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Dessert

Elkhart Drop Cakes

A sweet drop cake with raisins, walnuts, and spices baked in a preheated oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Elkhart Drop Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and dark brown sugar together until smooth.

  2. Add the egg yolks and cream again until well combined.

  3. Sift together all dry ingredients and add to the mixture.

  4. Fold in the raisins and walnuts, then gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto greased baking sheets.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 5 to 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to finish baking.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a soft, chewy texture, plus molasses flavour.
Butter
Provides fat that creams with sugar to trap air and gives a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Eggs
Add structure, binding and moisture, and help set the batter as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas for lift and aids browning.
Black walnut meats
Add crunch and a strong, nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Beaten whites hold air that helps the cakes rise and stay light. Vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving dense, flat drop cakes.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, egg, cinnamon, raisin, clove. 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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