Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Twelfth Night Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
Beat the egg yolks and add them to the creamed mixture gradually.
Add the milk alternately with the flour mixed with baking powder.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Stir in the lemon rind, lemon juice, raisins, and caraway seeds.
Prepare and bake
Prepare a round pan with a tube in the center, lining it with buttered paper.
Roll silver pieces in thin white paper and flour, placing them in opposite sides of the cake batter.
Bake at 300°F (150°C) until done.
Finish
Once cooled, frost with thick white frosting and decorate with candied cherries and angelica.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,768 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Eggs
- Whites trapped by folding add lift and an airy crumb, while yolks enrich the batter.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Granulated sugar
- Creamed with butter for a fine crumb, and adds sweetness and browning.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites gently. Overmixing knocks air out of the whites, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Fold just until no streaks remain.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, raisin, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, raisin, 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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