Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Imperial 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat the egg yolks until light, then add to the butter and sugar mixture.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture.
Sift in the flour, reserving some for the fruit.
Add the fruit and nuts
Blanch and finely chop the almonds, then mix with the citron and raisins.
Combine the fruit and nuts with the reserved flour, then fold into the batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden brown.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,781 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture when creamed.
- Eggs
- Egg yolks add richness and structure, while whipped whites lighten the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Almonds
- Add body, nutty flavor and a moist, tender texture to the crumb.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the cake rise. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing and gives a light, even texture.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, almond, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, almond, raisin. 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.
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