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Dessert

Raised Cake

A moist raisin cake made with bread sponge, sugar, butter, eggs, baking soda, raisins, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Raised Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Raised 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the bread sponge, sugar, and butter.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the raisins and spices.

  6. Gradually add flour until the batter is stiff.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread sponge
Provides fermented leavening and a tender, slightly tangy crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tenderness, and a moist texture.
Eggs
Add structure and binding, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch structure that holds the cake together.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the batter is stiff. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the batter's stiffness. Too much flour makes the cake dry and dense, while too little leaves it heavy and wet inside.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, sugar, butter, egg, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, egg, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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.

More raisin cake recipes

Spiced 34Molasses 30Eggless 11Caraway 7Currant 7Filling 7 See all 154 →

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