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Baking

Seed Cake

A cake made with flour, butter, caraway seeds, eggs, sugar, orange flower water, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Frances Crawford · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Seed Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Take two pounds of flour and a pound and a half of white sugar, pound and sift them. Mix them well together and put them before the fire.

  2. Dry the mixture until ready.

  3. Take two pounds of butter and beat it with your hand until it is a soft cream; it will take about an hour.

  4. Beat eighteen eggs, leaving out eight whites.

  5. Strain the eggs.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs well with the butter.

  2. Beat the yolks and whites separately.

  3. Add some orange-flower water and a glass of brandy, and beat again.

  4. Mix the flour, sugar, and three ounces of caraway seeds, stirring gradually until all is mixed, beating for about two hours.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter the pan, line the bottom with paper, and bake for three hours in a moderate oven.

  2. Add candied citron, lemon, and orange peel, cut into thin slices.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

635Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
96 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Caraway Seednot 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 Frances Crawford. 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. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + carawaytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Beaten into a soft cream, it traps air and gives the cake a tender crumb.
Eggs
Add structure, richness and moisture, and help the cake rise as they set.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the cake and helps the butter cream to a soft, light texture.
Caraway seeds
Add a distinct aromatic, slightly spicy flavour throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Beating the butter until it is a soft cream. Creaming softened butter by beating traps air in the fat, which helps the cake rise and gives it a light texture. If the butter is too cold or beaten too little, the batter stays dense.

Swap the caraway

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, 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.

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