Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Spiced Mountain Cake
Ingredients
Directions
S eggs; J4 cup milk;
1}4 cups flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder.
Cream the butter and sugar; add the yolks of 5 eggs, one at a time. Then the cinnamon and nutmeg. Add al- ternately ½ cup milk, lYz cups of flour, containing baking powder. Add the beaten whites of 2 eggs, Divide the batter into 3 jelly cake pans and bake in a moderate oven for 15 minutes. When baked spread with icing made of the whites of 3 eggs, beaten stiff, with 2 cups of pulverized sugar. Separate this into two parts, using the larger portion to cover layers, and the smaller for outside frosting. Add the juire of a lemon to inside icing and more sugar to pre- vent running. The lemon rind to be grated into outside frosting.
— Mrs. M. D. Kaufmann.
SPONGE CAKE AND PEACH MELBA,
tablespoon boiling water; 1 teaspoon baking powder.
For peach melba, bake in long kuchen pan, add straw- berry or raspberry sauce, then vanilla ice cream, peaches and sauce on top. Cut pieces of cake long enough to hold J^ peach.
— Mrs. M. Kingsbacher.
SPONGE CAKE (PASSOVER).
2 large cups granulated sugar; % cup chopped almonds.
Beat yolks very light with sugar; add flour, lemon rind and almonds; lastly, whites beaten stiff, to which a pinch of salt is added.
—Mrs. Wm. Frank. 150
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Cinnamon | 1 tsp ground (2.6g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Cake | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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 + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Cinnamon and sugar 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 lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cinnamon, sugar, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cinnamon, sugar, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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