Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Golden 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.
Prepare
Dredge the currants with 1 tablespoon of the weighed flour.
Warm the flour by placing it in a bowl set in hot water.
Make the batter
Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with a spoonful of cold milk, then stir into the butter and sugar mixture.
Add the grated nutmeg, then stir in the flour and baking powder.
Mix in the brandy and finally add the currants.
Bake
Quickly pour the batter into a buttered cake pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
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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Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,311 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter and flour 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter, giving a tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and when creamed with sugar it traps air for a light texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, aerated batter.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
- Currants
- Add fruit sweetness and chewy pockets throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Pour the batter quickly into the pan. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is mixed with wet ingredients, so delaying the pour lets some of that lift escape before the cake reaches the oven, which can leave it denser.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour, nutmeg, brandy):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, nutmeg, 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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