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Dessert

Banbury Cakes

Small spiced pastry cakes filled with currants, suet, candied peel and macaroons, baked and cut while warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Banbury Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix well together a pound of currants, cleaned and dried.

  2. Add a quarter-pound of finely minced beef suet.

  3. Add three ounces each of candied orange and lemon-rind, shredded small.

  4. Add a few grains of salt.

  5. Add a full quarter-ounce of pounded cinnamon and nutmeg, mixed.

  6. Add four ounces of macaroons or ratafias rolled to powder.

Make and fill the pastry

  1. Make a light paste with fourteen ounces of butter to the pound of flour.

  2. Give the paste an extra turn or two to prevent it rising too much in the oven.

  3. Roll out one half of the paste in a very thin square.

  4. Spread the mixed fruit and spice equally upon it.

  5. Moisten the edges.

  6. Lay on the remaining half of the paste, rolled equally thin.

  7. Press the edges securely together.

  8. Mark the whole with the back of a knife in regular divisions two inches wide and three in length.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the pastry in a well-heated oven from twenty-five to thirty minutes.

  2. Divide it into cakes while it is still warm.

  3. Glaze at pleasure.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

209Calories
8 gProtein
6 gFat
32 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Eggs1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7

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

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Orange + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Almond + curranttop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Currant + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,734 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Currants
Provide the sweet, chewy fruit filling that gives each cake its body.
Butter (in the method)
Enriches the light paste, adding flavour and tenderness to the pastry layers.
Beef suet (in the method)
Adds richness and moisture to the filling, keeping it soft during baking.
Macaroons
Add almond-like sweetness and a crumbly texture to the spiced filling.
Candied orange
Adds sweet citrus aroma and bright flavour to the fruit mixture.

The step that matters

Give the paste an extra turn or two. Extra folding and rolling builds layers in the paste and helps control how much it rises in the oven, keeping the cakes from puffing too high.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, almond, 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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