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Dessert

Queen Charlotte's Cake

A yeast cake with butter, powdered sugar, candied peel, almonds, and cinnamon, finished with a sugared syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Queen Charlotte's Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Prepare a sponge by mixing 1 pint sifted flour, 1 teacup warm milk, 1 cake of yeast or 2 tablespoons liquid yeast, and ½ teaspoon salt.

  2. Let the sponge rise in a warm place until very light.

Mix and bake

  1. Beat 1 pound butter and ¾ pound powdered sugar together into a cream.

  2. Add 4 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 pound candied peel, 1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon, and 1 small cup blanched chopped almonds to the mixture.

  3. Let the mixture stand for ½ hour.

  4. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).

Finish and serve

  1. While still hot, prick holes with a sharp knife and pour in a syrup made from 1 cup sugar and 1 large tablespoon water boiled together for 5 minutes.

  2. Cover the top of the cake with harlequin comfits or dust it thickly with powdered sugar.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it bakes.
Yeast
Produces gas that makes the sponge rise and lightens the cake.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender texture.
Eggs
Add structure, richness and help bind the batter together.
Candied peel
Adds aromatic citrus flavour and chewy pieces throughout the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, in the syrup, keeps the cake moist.

The step that matters

Pour the syrup while the cake is still hot. Hot cake has open pores that let the syrup soak in evenly. Pricking holes first lets the syrup reach the crumb, so cooling the cake before pouring would leave it wet on top and dry inside.

“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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