Name: French Baba and Savarin Cakes
Ingredients: sultana or seeded Malaga raisins; powdered sugar; thin syrup; Maraschino liquor

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

French Baba and Savarin Cakes

Ingredients

sultana or seeded Malaga raisins
powdered sugar
thin syrup
Maraschino liquor

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cake mixture as for German mixtures No. 1, 2, or 3.
Fold in sultana or seeded Malaga raisins for the French Baba.
Bake in a straight-sided form with a wide center tube at 350°F (175°C).
Once baked, ice or dust with powdered sugar.
For Savarin, omit the fruit and saturate the cake with a thin syrup containing Maraschino liquor before serving.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Raisin + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together336 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).