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Dessert

Election Cake

A yeast-based cake with raisins, brandy, butter, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Election Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine 3 cups of milk, 2 cups of sugar, and 1 cup of yeast to form a batter.

  2. Let the batter stand overnight.

Finish and bake

  1. In the morning, add 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of butter, 3 eggs, grated nutmeg, cinnamon, raisins, and brandy.

  2. Dissolve ½ teaspoon of baking soda in 1 tablespoon of milk and add it to the mixture.

  3. Grease the pans and pour in the batter, allowing it to rise until light before baking.

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the overnight batter, producing gas that leavens the cake.
Eggs
Add structure and richness to the crumb as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Raisins
Provide sweetness, chewy texture and fruit flavor throughout the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic batter to add extra lift and help browning.

The step that matters

Letting the batter rise until light before baking. The yeast needs time and warmth to produce enough gas to lighten the batter. Baking before it has risen properly leaves a dense cake, because the bubbles that give lift are not yet formed.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

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