Name: Imperial Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; ½ pound unsalted butter; ¾ pound granulated sugar; 4 large eggs; ½ pound currants, washed and dredged; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ½ lemon, grated rind and juice; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Imperial Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°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.

Make the batter

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the flour, baking soda dissolved in hot water, currants, lemon rind, lemon juice, and cinnamon.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto well-buttered parchment paper in a baking pan.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Currant + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Unsalted butter: Adds richness and tenderness, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps create a tender, browned crumb when creamed with butter.
Large eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and moisture to the cake.
Baking soda: Reacts with acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
Currants: Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cakes.

Swap the currant

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Blueberryfits better
Currantthe original

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