Name: Cider Cake
Ingredients: 1½ cups all-purpose flour; ½ cup sugar; ¼ cup butter; ½ cup cider; 1 teaspoon baking powder; Spices to taste

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cider Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the cider and mix well.
Gradually stir in the flour and baking powder.
Add spices to your taste.
Pour the batter into a greased pan.

Bake

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until it turns easily in the pan.

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.

Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + cidertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,012 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Sugar + cidertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,308 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, tender texture when creamed with butter.
Cider: Adds moisture and fruity flavour to the batter.
All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.

“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.