Name: Quick Cake
Ingredients: ⅓ cup soft butter; 1 ⅓ cups brown sugar; 2 eggs; ½ cup milk; 1 ½ cups flour; 3 teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg; ½ lb dates, stoned and finely chopped

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 ↓

Quick 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 and bake

In a bowl, combine all ingredients and beat thoroughly for 3 to 4 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a lined loaf pan.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 35 to 40 minutes.

Variation

For variation, substitute the dates with an equal amount of raisins, nuts, or figs, chopped if using figs.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + datestop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together283 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness, moisture, and a caramel-like flavor and browning.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor.
Dates: Add moisture, natural sweetness, and chewy texture to the cake.

Swap the dates

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Datesthe original

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