Name: Spice Cake
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 cup sour milk; 4 tablespoons molasses; 1 cup raisins; 1 cup currants; 3 cups flour; 1 cup chopped nuts; 4 eggs; 2 heaping teaspoons baking soda; two eggs; two layers in a moderate oven

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 ↓

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.

Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together490 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and molasses to release gas that lifts the batter.
Eggs: Add structure as their proteins set in the oven, and the whites add lightness.
Flour: Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Molasses: Adds moisture, sweetness and a dark, rich colour to the crumb.
Sour milk: Its acidity activates the baking soda and helps keep the crumb tender.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites last. Adding the whites of two eggs last, after the other ingredients are combined, keeps air in the batter so the layers rise and stay light. Overmixing at this point can knock out that air and make the cake dense.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, milk, molasses, raisin, flour, nuts, egg):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Datesfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, milk, molasses, raisin, flour, nuts, 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Grape	1/2 cup (76g)	62
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Nuts	not in our table	0

Spice Cake

Spice Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

Make the filling

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)