Why it works: Vanilla and raspberry work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 950 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Cream Buns and Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Knead the prepared cream into the desired shape or press it into a tin mold.
Flavor and color the cream as desired.
Place the shaped cream in a warm area to slightly harden on the outside.
Melt the cocoa paste or malted chocolate over a gas stove or in a bowl set over boiling water, ensuring no water gets into the chocolate.
Once melted, cover the buns smoothly with the chocolate using a knife or brush.
Set the buns aside until the chocolate is dry.
Glaze the buns with a solution of shellac and alcohol using a soft brush.
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.
-
Vanilla + raspberrytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together950 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
-
Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together357 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
-
Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
-
Cream + raspberrytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,332 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cocoa + raspberrytop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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
Swap the raspberry
The recipe marks raspberry as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, cocoa, vanilla):
- Coconutfits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberrythe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cocoa, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
You might also like
Raspberry Jam150 recipes
Vanilla Ice Cream108 recipes
Raspberry Cream82 recipes
Raspberry Ice29 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.