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Dessert

Spanish Bun Cake

A sweet cake with brown sugar, butter, sweet milk, eggs, flour, baking powder, vanilla, and cinnamon, topped with a sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Spanish Bun 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 cake

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sweet milk, egg yolks, and whole egg; mix well.

  4. Stir in the baking powder, flour, vanilla, and cinnamon until combined.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the frosting and finish

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gradually add 1 cup of brown sugar and mix thoroughly.

  3. Spread the frosting over the cake.

  4. Return it to the oven to brown.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps give the cake its tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the cake rich and tender when creamed with sugar.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, and help bind the batter.
Whole egg
Adds structure and moisture to the batter as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Stiff egg whites trap air that gives the frosting its volume and light texture. Under-beaten whites stay runny and deflate, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

“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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