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Dessert

Citron Heart Cakes

Citron Heart Cakes are buttery, sweet cakes flavored with brandy and citron slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Citron Heart Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Beat the egg whites until frothy.

  3. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until well combined.

  4. Add the sifted flour and mix well.

  5. Stir in the brandy and the sliced citron.

  6. Grease small heart-shaped tins or a square tin with melted butter.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into the tins, filling them half an inch deep.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Creamed with the sugar base, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whites beaten to froth add lift.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks blend smoothly into a light mixture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and moistens the batter.

The step that matters

Filling the tins to half an inch deep. Overfilling makes the batter spill and bake unevenly, while underfilling yields flat, dry cakes. Even depth helps the cakes rise and brown uniformly.

“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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