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Dessert

Wholemeal Cake

A yeast-leavened wholemeal cake with currants, sultanas, almonds, and cinnamon, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Wholemeal Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub the vegan butter into the wholemeal flour.

  3. Add the currants, sultanas, cinnamon, chopped almonds, and sugar.

  4. Beat the eggs and mix them into the other ingredients.

  5. Dissolve the yeast in 1 cup of warm milk.

  6. Add the dissolved yeast to the mixture.

  7. Stir until a moist dough forms.

  8. Add more milk as needed.

Rise and bake

  1. Cover the mixing bowl with a cloth.

  2. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours, turning the bowl occasionally.

  3. Grease one or several baking tins.

  4. Fill the greased tins with the dough.

  5. Bake for 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the cakes.

  6. If the cakes brown too quickly, cover them with a sheet of paper.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Wholemeal flour
Forms the main structure of the dough and absorbs liquid to bind it.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add richness and structure as they set in the oven.
German yeast
Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become lighter.
Vegan butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise. The yeast needs a warm, undisturbed period to ferment and build gas. Too cool and the dough stays dense; the bowl is turned so the dough rises evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, cinnamon, almond, egg, butter, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, cinnamon, almond, egg, butter, milk. 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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