Name: England Apple Cake
Ingredients: 4 medium apples, pared,cored and sliced; 2 cups sugar; 4 eggs; 1 cup vegetable oil; 3 cups sifted flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 cup orange juice; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 4 teaspoons sugar; 2 teaspoons cinnamon, mixed together

Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

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.

Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,287 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,598 recipes

Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,371 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,230 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and give it structure and a tender, moist crumb.
Flour: Forms the cake's main structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Vegetable oil: Adds fat that keeps the crumb moist and tender after cooling.
Apples: Release moisture as they bake, keeping the layers juicy and sweet.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and moist.

The step that matters

Add flour mixture alternately with orange juice. Mixing in the flour and liquid gently, in alternating additions, keeps the batter smooth. Overbeating once flour is in develops gluten, which makes the cake tough.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, orange, vanilla, cinnamon):

Raisinfits better
Blueberryfits better
Figfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, orange, vanilla, cinnamon. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

England Apple Cake