Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Apple Sauce 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Prepare apple sauce by straining and sweetening it for table use.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the apple sauce and hot water, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.
Fold in the raisins.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30‑40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apple sauce
- Adds moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the cake tender.
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to add fat and a tender crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic components to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
The step that matters
Stirring in the dry ingredients. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form, so mixing only until just combined keeps the cake tender rather than tough and dense.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, sugar, flour, raisin, butter, cinnamon, clove):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
- Quincefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, sugar, flour, raisin, butter, cinnamon, clove. 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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