Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,075 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Sultana Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Rub the butter and sugar to a very light cream.
Add the eggs, two at a time, beating five minutes between each addition.
Add the flour, sifted with the baking powder, the thick cream, sultana raisins, and chopped citron. Mix into a rather firm batter.
Bake and finish
Put the batter into a paper-lined cake tin.
Bake in a moderate oven for 1¼ hours.
When removed from the oven, carefully spread a little transparent icing.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
- Sultana raisins
- Add sweetness, chewy texture and moisture to the finished cake.
The step that matters
Beating the eggs in gradually. Adding eggs two at a time while beating well keeps the creamed butter and sugar emulsified. If the eggs go in too fast, the batter can curdle and lose the air needed for a light rise.
Flavor stand-ins for the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cream, flour, egg):
- Vanillaabout as good a flavor fit
- Raisinthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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