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Dessert

Twelfth Night Cake

A cake made with butter, milk, baking powder, raisins soaked in brandy, eggs, flour, lemon rind, caraway seeds, and decorated with candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Twelfth Night Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and two of granulated sugar into a cream.

  2. Beat the whites and yolks of six eggs separately.

  3. Beat the yolks into the creamed butter and sugar, a little at a time.

  4. Add one-half cup of milk alternately with three cups of flour that has one teaspoonful of baking powder sifted with it.

  5. Fold in the beaten whites of the eggs.

  6. Add the grated rind and juice of half a lemon, a cup of seeded raisins soaked in brandy and rolled in flour, and a teaspoonful of caraway seeds.

Bake and decorate

  1. Bake slowly in a round pan with a tube in the center, lined with buttered paper.

  2. Roll the silver pieces in thin white paper, then in flour; place in opposite sides of the cake.

  3. When cold, ice with a thick white frosting, decorate with candied cherries and angelica, surround with holly and stick a piece in the center.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

846Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Brandynot in our table0

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

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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.

  1. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Whites add lift when folded in, while yolks add richness and structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter when alternated with the flour.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture in pockets throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten whites of the eggs.. Whipped egg whites trap air that makes the cake rise. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and produces a dense cake.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, brandy, egg, flour):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Apricotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, brandy, egg, flour. 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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