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 ↓
Cream 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).
Make the batter
In a mixing bowl, combine the sweet cream and white sugar.
Add the raisins or currants and the egg, mixing well.
Sift the baking powder into the Graham flour and gradually add it to the mixture until you achieve a thin batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until golden brown.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Sweet cream
- Provides moisture and richness, keeping the cake tender and moist.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Graham flour
- Forms the base structure of the batter as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and become light.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as the cake bakes.
The step that matters
Adding the baking powder. Baking powder starts releasing gas once it meets liquid and heat, so the batter should be baked soon after mixing. Sifting it into the flour first spreads it evenly so the cake rises uniformly rather than in pockets.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, egg, flour):
- Raisinthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Strawberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, egg, 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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