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Dessert

Dutch Cake

A yeasted sweet bread cake with raisins, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Dutch Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sponge

  1. Scald the milk.

  2. Add the butter and salt; let it stand until lukewarm.

  3. Stir in the sugar and the compressed yeast dissolved in 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water.

  4. Sift in sufficient flour to make a sponge and beat briskly for 5 minutes.

  5. Cover and let it stand in a warm place overnight.

Shape and prove

  1. In the morning, add the vanilla, nutmeg, and enough flour to make a stiff dough.

  2. Knead thoroughly and work in the raisins.

  3. Divide the dough into four parts and roll each into a flat round cake.

  4. Place the cakes on greased pie plates and brush the tops with melted butter.

  5. Let them stand in a warm place until they double in size.

Bake

  1. Make several light cuts across the top with a sharp knife.

  2. Brush lightly with a mixture of 1 tablespoon egg white, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar.

  3. Apply this mixture again 5 minutes before removing from the oven.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Milk
Provides liquid and richness that give the dough a soft, tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor and browned top.
Compressed yeast
Ferments the sugars in the sponge, producing gas that makes the dough rise.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough structure to hold its shape and rise.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning to the crust.
Raisins
Add pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Let the dough double in size before baking. Yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas for full rise. Under-proofed dough bakes dense, while the shaped rounds need room to expand before the oven sets their structure.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Clovefits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, butter, vanilla, flour, raisin. 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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