Name: The Birthday Cake
Ingredients: layers of yellow cake; chocolate frosting; bon-bons; rose drops; marshmallows; white icing; crimson sugar sand; 8 candles (1 white, 2 rose-tint, 1 vermilion, 3 blue, 3 gold)

Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

The Birthday Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Stack the layers of yellow cake high.
Spread chocolate frosting between the layers.
Decorate the cake with bon-bons, rose drops, and marshmallows.
Use white icing to write 'Wilber' in large letters on top.
Place 8 candles around the name, using a white one for 1 year, rose-tint for 2 years, vermilion for 3 and 4 years, and alternate blue and gold for 5 to 8 years.

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.

Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chocolate + rosetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together149 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Rose + sugartop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,584 recipes

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