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Dessert

Simnel Yeast Cake

A yeast-based fruit cake with currants, candied peel, and almond icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Simnel Yeast Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water and add the castor sugar.

  2. Work the mixture into the flour to form a dough.

  3. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.

  4. Mix in the currants, candied peel, beaten eggs, softened butter, and mixed spice.

  5. Work the ingredients well and let the dough rise for another hour in a warm place, covered.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place half of the dough in a tin lined with buttered paper.

  2. Add a layer of almond icing on top, then place the remaining dough on top.

  3. Bake in a steady oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 2 hours.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, coat the outside or just the top with more almond icing, ½ inch thick.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the dough's structure, providing the framework that holds the cake together.
Dried yeast
Produces gas during the rise, making the dough light and airy.
Eggs
Add richness and help bind the dough and set the crumb during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Currants
Provide sweetness and concentrated fruity flavor throughout the cake.
Almond icing
Adds sweetness and almond flavor, and forms a layer that softens during baking.

The step that matters

Work the ingredients well and let the second rise finish fully. Thorough kneading develops gluten so the dough can trap the gas produced by the yeast. Under-working or rushing the second rise leaves a dense cake, while a warm, covered rise lets the yeast expand the dough evenly.

Swap the currant

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

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

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