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Dessert

Marguerites, or Jelly Cakes

A rose water and spice cake topped with jam and powdered sugar icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Marguerites, or Jelly Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Beat the egg yolks until thick, then sift in the flour, spices, and rose water.

  4. Stir the mixture well and roll it out to about ¼ inch thick.

  5. Cut out the cakes and bake for a few minutes until pale brown.

Finish and ice

  1. Once cooled, spread peach jam or marmalade on each cake.

  2. Beat the egg whites until light, then gradually add powdered sugar until thick.

  3. Flavor the icing with lemon or rose water and spoon it onto each cake, creating a high center.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and binding so the dough holds its shape when cut.
Flour
Provides the main structure of the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
Egg whites
Whipped with powdered sugar to form a light, thick icing.
Peach jam or marmalade
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture between the cake and the icing.

The step that matters

Baking the cakes just until pale brown. Cakes cut from a thin dough cook quickly, and over-baking dries them out and darkens the surface. Pulling them out at pale brown keeps them moist and tender.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, rose. 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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