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Dessert

Prince Albert Cake

A layered cake with alternating white and brown batter, containing raisins and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 ↓

Prince Albert Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the whites of 4 eggs until stiff.

  3. In another bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar.

  4. Add the egg whites, 1 cup of sweet milk, and 4 light cups of flour to the creamed mixture. Mix in 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of flour, yolks of 3 eggs, 1 cup of brown sugar, ½ cup of butter, ½ cup of raisins, ½ cup of nut kernels, ½ cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of spice, and ½ teaspoon of cloves. Mix well.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour into jelly pans, alternating layers of the white and black batter.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

  3. Join the layers with icing.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites beaten until stiff trap air, giving the cake lift and a light crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavor to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Alternating the white and dark batter in the pans. Pouring the two batters in layers keeps them distinct; stirring or overfilling would blend them and blur the contrast. Whipped egg whites are fragile, so folding gently preserves the air that gives lift.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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