Name: Raised Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups raised bread dough; 2 cups sugar; 1 cup butter; 1 cup seeded raisins; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon lemon extract; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Raised Cake

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the raised bread dough and sugar.
Melt the butter and add it to the mixture.
Stir in the seeded raisins, baking soda, lemon extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Mix until well combined and smooth.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,377 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, butter, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg):

Figfits better
Vanillafits better
Applefits about as well
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.