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Dessert

Honey Cake

A moist cake made with honey, butter, eggs, coffee, chocolate, spices, flour, citron, raisins, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Honey Cake

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 ↓

Honey 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. 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the honey and butter until well combined.

  2. Add the eggs, black coffee, grated chocolate, cinnamon, and allspice; mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients to form a very stiff batter.

  5. Fold in the citron, stoned raisins, and almonds.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30–40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Coffee + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Honey + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake stay tender and browned.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Provide structure and help bind the batter as it sets.
Flour
Forms the structure of the stiff batter as the cake sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and lightens.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. The batter must be very stiff, so adding flour slowly and mixing until just combined keeps it from becoming dense or uneven. Overworking flour develops gluten, which can toughen the crumb.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, butter, egg, coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, butter, egg, coffee, chocolate, cinnamon, flour. 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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