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Dessert

Anise Drop Cakes

Anise drop cakes are small cakes made from eggs, flour, powdered sugar, and anise seed, baked until light yellow.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and anise work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 270 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Anise Drop Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Weigh the flour and sugar accurately.

  2. Sift the flour three times.

  3. Sift the sugar once.

  4. Add the sifted flour and sugar to the unbeaten eggs.

  5. Beat steadily for 30 minutes.

  6. Blend in the flour well.

Shape and dry

  1. Prepare a waxed sheet sprinkled with anise seed.

  2. Dip a teaspoon in cold water.

  3. Scoop a round spoonful of the mixture.

  4. Drop it onto the sheet about 2 inches apart.

  5. Let the cakes stand overnight (about 12 hours).

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until light yellow.

  2. Trim uneven edges with shears after removing from the oven.

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.

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 + anisetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + anisetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Beaten steadily to trap air, giving the cakes their light, airy structure.
Pastry flour
Provides the starch and structure that set the cakes as they bake.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cakes and dissolves into the eggs to add body to the batter.
Anise seed
Adds a distinct licorice-like aroma to the cakes.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs for 30 minutes. Long, steady beating incorporates air into the unbeaten eggs, which is what makes the batter rise and keeps the cakes light. Stopping early or beating unevenly leaves a dense result.

Swap the anise

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Anisethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar. 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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