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Dessert

Maids of Honour Cakes

A puff pastry cake with milk, bread crumbs, butter, almonds, sugar, eggs, and lemon zest.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Maids of Honour Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Boil the milk and bread crumbs and let them stand for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the butter, almonds, and sugar.

  3. Beat the eggs, one at a time.

Bake

  1. Put a dessert spoonful of the mixture in the center of the pastry, and bake until golden brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

852Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
124 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a tender custard when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a tender, moist texture.
Almonds
Add body and a nutty flavour to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the boiled milk to thicken the filling and add body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the filling, which sets when baked.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one fully blend into the mixture, keeping the filling smooth instead of separated or lumpy. Well-beaten eggs also help the filling set evenly in the pastry.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, butter, almond, sugar, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, butter, almond, sugar, egg. 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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