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Dessert

Good Simnel Cake

A fruit cake with sultanas, currants, candied peel, almond paste, and spices, baked in a round tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Good Simnel Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

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.

Prepare the dough

  1. Rub the butter into the flour, then add all the dry ingredients and mix well.

  2. Cream the yeast, then add the milk and egg yolks.

  3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the milk mixture.

  4. Mix into a soft paste and set to rise in a warm place for two hours.

Fill and bake

  1. Line a round cake tin with thick paper and pour in half of the cake mixture.

  2. Place a layer of almond paste in the center, then pour in the remaining cake mixture.

  3. Bake for two hours at 350°F (175°C).

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.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as the dough sets in the oven.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas during the two-hour rise, lightening the dough.
Egg yolks
Add richness, colour and tenderness to the crumb.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and yeast to form a soft, workable paste.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Rising the dough. The dough needs a warm place for the full two hours so the yeast can produce gas and lighten the crumb. Under-proofed dough bakes dense and heavy.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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