Name: Spice Layer Cake
Ingredients: one-half cups sugar; one-half cup butter; one-half cups milk; one teaspoon cinnamon; three-fourths cup chopped raisins; three-fourths cup chopped walnuts; two teaspoons bak- ing powder; three eggs

Why it works: Cinnamon and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Spice Layer Cake

Ingredients

Directions

One and one-half cups sugar, one-half cup butter, yolks three eggs (save the whites for icing), one and one-half cups milk, one teaspoon cinnamon and cloves, three-fourths cup chopped raisins, three-fourths cup chopped walnuts, two teaspoons bak- ing powder and flour to make stiff enough to bake. — Mrs. Erg- mann, Jr., Los Angeles, Calif.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

472Calories

16 gProtein

28 gFat

44 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Walnut	1 walnut half (4g)	26
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6

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

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. See the original page.

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.

Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,147 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the walnut

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

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits about as well
Pecansfits about as well
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, cinnamon, raisin, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.