Why it works: Almond and cranberry share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 41 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the batter
Heat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir to mix.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, gradually beat sugar into butter.
Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
Blend in almond extract.
Stir together cranberry sauce and sour cream.
In several batches, add dry ingredients to butter mixture alternately with cranberry sour cream, beating until blended.
Turn into bundt pan; smooth top.
Bake and serve
Bake 1 hr 10 minutes, or until cake is nicely browned on top and beginning to pull away from sides of pan.
Let cool 10 minutes, then run a dull knife around inside and outer edges of pan to loosen.
Unmold onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.
Drizzle with your choice of icing if you would like.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Almond + cranberrytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + almondtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,450 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + almondtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,198 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + creamtop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,437 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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 structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream and cranberry sauce to help the cake rise.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, keeping the crumb tender and soft.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, browned crust.
The step that matters
Baking until browned and pulling away from the sides. Underbaking leaves the centre wet and gummy and can cause the cake to collapse when unmolded. Browning and pulling away from the pan show the structure has set, so the cake releases cleanly.
“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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