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Dessert

Banbury Cakes

A sweet pastry filled with candied peel, currants, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Banbury Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the filling

  1. Mix the candied orange peel, candied lemon peel, currants, cinnamon, allspice, and creamed butter in a glass jar.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine lard, flour, and salt. Blend with ice water until the dough is not too wet.

  2. Roll out the dough and cut into round pieces the size of a saucer.

Fill and bake

  1. Place a large teaspoonful of the filling in the center of each round, fold over, and pinch the edges to seal.

  2. Turn the cakes over, brush with egg whites, and dust with granulated sugar.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Orange + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the filling and helps bind it together.
Lard
Shortens the dough, producing a tender, flaky texture.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough once bound with water.
Currants
Provide sweetness and chewy bulk to the filling.
Candied orange peel
Adds sweetness and concentrated citrus aroma to the filling.
Egg whites
Brushed on top, they help the surface set and brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Blend the dough with ice water until it is not too wet. Cold water keeps the fat firm so the dough stays short and flaky. Too much water develops gluten, making the pastry tough and harder to roll and seal around the filling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, lemon, cinnamon, allspice, butter, flour, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, lemon, cinnamon, allspice, butter, flour, egg. 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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