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Dessert

Spanish Cake

A sponge cake made with eggs, sugar, flour, almond paste, rose water, mountain wine, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Spanish Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.

  2. Gradually mix in the sugar, flour, and almond paste.

  3. Add the rose-water, mountain wine, and cinnamon, and mix well.

  4. Continue mixing for 45 minutes.

Bake

  1. Grease a baking pan with butter.

  2. Pour the batter into the pan and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten until frothy, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Almonds
Add richness, moisture and a nutty flavour to the crumb.
Mountain wine
Adds liquid and a fragrant depth of flavour to the batter.

The step that matters

Continue mixing for 45 minutes. Long mixing of the batter after the eggs and flour are combined develops structure and incorporates air, which helps the cake rise and set evenly. Mixing too little leaves the batter dense and uneven.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, almond, rose, wine, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, almond, rose, wine, 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.

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