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Dessert

Cinnamon Cake

A cake made with flour, sugar, eggs, butter, almonds, cinnamon, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Cinnamon Cake

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon 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 ↓

Cinnamon 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 dough

  1. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together for 30 minutes.

  2. Add the softened butter, grated almonds, cinnamon, lemon rind, and flour to the mixture.

  3. Roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼ inch or less.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut out shapes using a cake cutter and let them stand overnight.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) the next morning.

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.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + cinnamontop 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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Bind the dough and add structure and richness when beaten with sugar.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for a tender, rich texture.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets as it bakes.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and, when beaten with eggs, helps create a light base.
Grated almonds
Add nutty flavour and fat, adding body and tenderness to the dough.

The step that matters

Beating the sugar and eggs for 30 minutes. Long beating traps air in the eggs and dissolves the sugar, giving the dough lightness before the flour is added. Under-beating leaves a denser cake.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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