Name: Bread Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups light bread dough; 1¼ cups sugar; ¾ cup butter; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup raisins; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon ground cloves; grated nutmeg to taste

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 ↓

Bread Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

In a large bowl, mix the bread dough, sugar, butter, eggs, baking soda, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg together with your hands until well combined.
Pour the mixture into a cake tin with a tube in the center.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for nearly one hour.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Light bread dough: Provides the bulk and yeasty, tender crumb that gives this cake its base.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a moist, tender texture.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda: Reacts with acidic ingredients to lift the batter and help it rise.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps browning during baking.

Swap the raisin

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits about as well
Raisinthe original
Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. 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.