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Dessert

33 Queen Cakes

A sweet cake made with flour, rice, raisins, currants, butter, almonds, sugar, nutmeg, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

33 Queen Cakes

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Stone and chop the raisins.

  3. Wash, pick and dry the currants.

  4. Cream the butter until smooth.

  5. Blanch and chop the almonds.

  6. Grate the nutmeg.

Make the batter

  1. Mix all prepared ingredients together in a large bowl.

  2. Stir the baking soda into the warm milk.

  3. Add the warm milk mixture to the dough to form a paste.

Bake

  1. Butter a mold.

  2. Fill the mold slightly more than half with the dough.

  3. Bake for 1½ to 2 hours, or less if making two smaller cakes.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb when creamed until smooth.
Baking soda
Reacts with the warm milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and combines with the baking soda to loosen the batter.
Raisins
Add moisture and sweetness in pockets throughout the cake.
Sweet almonds
Add richness, texture and a nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Stir the baking soda into the warm milk. Baking soda needs an acid and moisture to release gas. Dissolving it fully in warm milk before adding it to the dough spreads the leavening evenly so the cake rises uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, rice, raisin, butter, almond, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, rice, raisin, butter, almond, sugar, 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.

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