Name: A Rich Seed Cake
Ingredients: 1 pound butter, softened; 1 pound flour; 1 pound sifted sugar; ½ pound sweet almonds, blanched and chopped; 1 piece each of candied orange, lemon, and citron peel, chopped; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 teaspoon ground mace; 1 tablespoon caraway seeds, plus extra for topping; 8 eggs, well beaten

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Rich Seed Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

1 pound butter, softened
1 pound flour
1 pound sifted sugar
½ pound sweet almonds, blanched and chopped
1 piece each of candied orange, lemon, and citron peel, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, plus extra for topping
8 eggs, well beaten

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Cream the butter until smooth.
Add the flour, sugar, chopped almonds, candied peels, cinnamon, mace, and caraway seeds; mix well.
Incorporate the beaten eggs into the mixture until fully combined.

Bake

Pour the batter into a tin lined with buttered paper.
Sprinkle additional caraway seeds on top.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as they set in the oven.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Sweet almonds: Add richness, moisture, and a nutty flavor to the crumb.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, almond, orange, lemon, cinnamon):

Cardamomfits better
Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, almond, orange, lemon, cinnamon. 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.