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Dessert

Queen Cakes

A light, sweet cake with sultanas, candied peel, and eggs, baked in a larded tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Queen Cakes

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

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

  2. Grease baking tins well with lard.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately.

  3. Sift the flour and baking powder, then add to the creamed mixture.

  4. Mix in the egg yolks with a little milk.

  5. Fold in the sultanas, candied peel, and the beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Fill the tins halfway with the mixture.

  2. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Yolks enrich and bind, while whipped whites lighten the batter and help it rise.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps hold air when creamed with the butter.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the heat, helping the cakes rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Stirring them vigorously knocks that air out, while gentle folding keeps it, so the cakes rise lightly rather than turning dense.

“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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