Name: Cinnamon Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 egg; ½ cup milk; 1¼ cups flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ cup butter; ground cinnamon; chopped nuts; granulated sugar

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cinnamon 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 batter

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the milk and the beaten egg, mixing well.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture.
Pour the batter into a biscuit tin.

Bake and serve

Sprinkle ground cinnamon, chopped nuts, and granulated sugar on top before baking.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 35 minutes.
Cut into squares to serve.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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: Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets during baking.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Milk: Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it mixes smoothly.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 35 minutes. Baking time depends on the oven and tin size. Underbaking leaves the centre wet and sunken, while overbaking dries the crumb. Check for a set centre and a skewer that comes out clean before removing the cake.

Swap the nuts

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

Almondfits better
Chestnutfits better
Pistachiofits better
Nutsthe original

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