Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Imperial 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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks until light, then add the creamed butter and sugar.
Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold them into the mixture.
Make the batter and bake
Gradually add the flour, reserving some for the fruit.
Mix in the shelled, blanched, and finely chopped almonds with the reserved flour and the fruit.
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake until golden.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten its texture.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Sugar
- Creams with butter for aeration and adds sweetness and browning.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Almonds
- Finely chopped nuts add richness, moisture, and a dense, fine crumb.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that lightens the batter. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a heavier cake, so fold gently until just combined.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, raisin, sugar, butter, flour, almond):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, raisin, sugar, butter, flour, almond. 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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