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Dessert

Cinnamon Cakes

A simple cake made with flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, eggs, baking powder, milk, and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cinnamon Cakes

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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.

Make and bake the batter

  1. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, flour, baking powder, beaten eggs, and milk. Mix well.

  2. Pour the batter into three well-greased oval tins.

  3. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, ice the top with water 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Unsalted butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, soft texture.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, creamed texture with the butter.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the cake rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Baking until a toothpick comes out clean. Underbaking leaves the centre wet and collapsed, while overbaking dries the crumb. A clean toothpick shows the structure has set but the cake is not dry.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

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