Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Wedding 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.
Prepare the fruit and nuts
Wash, pick, and dry the currants.
Cut the cherries into moderate-sized pieces.
Shred the candied peel.
Blanch and chop the almonds into small pieces.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream the butter using a wooden spoon or your hands.
Gradually add the sugar, flour, and eggs, mixing thoroughly.
Incorporate the remaining ingredients, adding them a little at a time and beating the mixture between each addition.
Beat the cake for a full hour.
Bake
Line a cake pan with double layers of buttered paper.
Pour the batter into the pan.
Place the pan on a metal baking sheet with 12 layers of paper underneath and 4 or 5 on top to prevent burning.
Bake in a moderately heated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.
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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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,125 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the dense batter together as it bakes.
- Unsalted butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Granulated sugar
- Creamed with butter for aeration and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking to give the cake its structure.
- Dried cherries
- Add moisture and chewy fruit pieces throughout the cake.
- Currants
- Add moisture and concentrated fruit flavour in every slice.
The step that matters
Beat the cake for a full hour. Long beating incorporates air and develops the batter's structure, but the mixture should be beaten between additions so the eggs and fat emulsify and the batter stays smooth rather than separating.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, lemon, orange, almond, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, lemon, orange, almond, egg. 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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