Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓
Ribbon 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs and sweet milk, mixing well.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and gradually add to the mixture.
Divide the batter into three equal parts.
Bake and assemble
To one part, fold in the raisins and currants, and add spices to taste.
Pour the fruit mixture into a greased cake pan and bake until golden.
Once baked, layer the fruit cake between the other two parts, spreading a thin layer of jelly in between.
Frosting may be added if desired.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,180 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour and butter 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
- Raisins
- Add chewy, concentrated sweetness and moisture to the fruit portion.
The step that matters
Dividing the batter into three equal parts. Unequal portions bake at different rates and stack unevenly, so the layers may be thick, thin or misshapen. Weighing or measuring the batter helps each layer bake evenly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, milk, egg, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, milk, egg, raisin. 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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