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Dessert

Washington Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, butter, eggs, currants, raisins, citron, milk, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Washington Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.

  6. Fold in the currants, chopped citron, and stoned raisins.

  7. Pour the batter into a shallow square cake pan.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  2. Let the cake cool completely before icing.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb when creamed into the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter.
Stoned raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Adding eggs gradually lets each one emulsify fully into the butter. If they are added too fast, the batter can curdle and trap less air, leading to a denser cake.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, egg, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, raisin):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, milk, nutmeg, cinnamon, raisin. 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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