Skip to main content
Dessert

Found-Cake,

A rich cake made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, brandy, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Found-Cake,

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix half the flour with the butter, brandy, and spices.

  2. Add the egg yolks beaten well into the sugar.

Finish and bake

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Add the egg whites in alternate spoonfuls with the rest of the flour.

  3. Beat the mixture for a long time and bake as soon as done.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Whipped whites add lift and an airy structure, while yolks enrich the batter and help it set.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes and sets.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, browned crust.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that makes the cake rise. Adding them in alternating spoonfuls with flour, and not overbeating, keeps that air from collapsing, so the cake stays light.

“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.

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipes