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Dessert

A Large Rich Two-guinea Cake

A rich cake made with butter, eggs, powdered sugar, spices, citrus peel, almonds, flour, currants, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Large Rich Two-guinea Cake

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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large copper preserving pan, rub the butter until very fine.

  3. In another large pan, whisk the eggs for 10 minutes.

  4. Over low heat, whisk the eggs and powdered sugar together until warm, then remove from heat and whisk until cold.

  5. Mix the egg and sugar mixture with the butter using your hands.

  6. Add the ground mace, cinnamon, and brandy.

  7. Chop the lemon peel, orange peel, citron, and sweet almonds, then add to the mixture.

  8. Sift in half of the flour, then add the currants.

  9. Mix the ground bitter almonds with a little powdered sugar to prevent oiling, then add to the mixture.

  10. Add the remaining flour and mix well.

Bake

  1. Line your baking pan with parchment paper, placing sheets inside and at the bottom.

  2. Bake in a brisk oven until done.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Creates a rich, tender crumb and carries the flavour through the batter.
Eggs
Provide structure and lift as the batter sets in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps give a fine, even texture.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Currants
Add moisture and chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the cake.
Bitter almonds
Add a deep, aromatic nutty flavour that complements the spices.

The step that matters

Whisking the eggs and sugar over low heat. Warming the eggs gently helps the sugar dissolve and the mixture stay stable; overheating can scramble the eggs, while cooling fully before adding butter helps prevent the batter from separating or oiling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, cinnamon, brandy, lemon, orange):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, cinnamon, brandy, lemon, orange. 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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