Name: Queen Cakes
Ingredients: 1 pound sugar, finely beaten; 2 eggs (yolks and whites); ½ pound butter; a little rose water; 6 tablespoons warm cream; 1 pound currants; as much flour as needed

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Queen Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, mix the sugar, eggs, butter, rose water, warm cream, currants, and enough flour to form a batter.
Pour the batter into well-buttered cake pans.

Bake and finish

Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, glaze the cakes, and let them stand for a while to rise.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Rose + curranttop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together494 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour 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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the batter and help set the crumb as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown.
Warm cream: Adds moisture and softness to the batter.
Currants: Add sweetness, tartness, and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the cake.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Raspberryfits better
Currantthe original

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