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Poppy Seed Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Who can resist a moist cake covered in a simple vanilla buttercream? Try it decorated with edible flowers for special occasions.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Poppy seed and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 91 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8-10
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease and line two 20 cm (8 inch) round cake tins.

  2. Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then gently fold in the flour, baking powder and poppy seeds until just combined.

  4. Divide the batter evenly between the tins and level the tops. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden, springy and a skewer comes out clean.

  5. Cool the cakes in their tins for 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack to cool completely.

  6. For the icing, beat the remaining butter until soft, then gradually beat in the icing sugar and vanilla extract until smooth and fluffy.

  7. Spread about a third of the icing over one cake, sandwich with the second cake, then spread the remaining icing over the top.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Poppy seed + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Butter + poppy seedtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together257 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  4. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together19,983 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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