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Dessert

White Cake

A light, sweet cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, candied orange peel, mace, brandy, flour, currants, and powdered almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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White Cake

Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

White 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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the sifted sugar and dried sugar, mixing well.

  3. Whisk the egg yolks and then fold them into the mixture.

  4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them in gently.

  5. Add the candied orange peel, mace, and brandy, mixing until combined.

  6. Stir in the flour gradually until fully incorporated.

  7. Fold in the currants and powdered almonds.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

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.

  1. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mace + curranttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,791 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Orange + curranttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and adds richness and tender texture.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and binding; whipped whites add lift and structure to the batter.
All-purpose flour
Builds the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps give the cake a fine crumb.
Currants
Add sweetness, chewy texture and fruity flavor throughout the cake.
Powdered almonds
Add nutty flavor and moisture, and a tender, fine texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites whipped to stiff peaks hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing and yields a lighter cake.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, orange, brandy, flour, currant):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, orange, brandy, flour, currant. 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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