Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓
Eggless 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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.
Flour the raisins and citron well with a little of the flour mixture.
Make the batter
Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the sour milk, mixing well.
Fold in the floured raisins and citron.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,686 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake crumb as it bakes.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving a tender, fine texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming aerates the batter.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with baking soda to lift the batter and adds moisture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Raisins
- Add chewy pieces and sweetness; flouring them helps keep them suspended in the batter.
The step that matters
Flouring the raisins and citron. Coating the fruit in flour helps it stay suspended rather than sinking to the bottom during baking, because the light flour coating gives the batter something to grip.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, raisin, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg):
- Cardamomfits better
- Clovethe original
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, raisin, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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