Name: A Tipsy Cake
Ingredients: 1 sponge cake; ½ cup white wine (or raisin wine); ⅓ cup brandy; sifted sugar; rich thick custard; light flower (for decoration); clear currant jelly (for decoration); sweet almonds (for decoration)

Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

A Tipsy Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Soak and assemble

Place the sponge cake in a deep dish.
Pour the white wine and brandy around the cake.
Let the cake soak up the wine.
Sprinkle sifted sugar over the cake.
Pour rich thick custard into the dish.

Decorate

Decorate the top with a flower, bits of currant jelly, or split sweet almonds.

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.

Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together620 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
White wine + curranttop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together276 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Brandy + almondtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,969 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cake: Forms the base that soaks up the wine and brandy, giving a moist, tender body.
White wine: Adds moisture and fruity acidity that softens the sponge as it soaks.
Brandy: Contributes aroma and warmth that flavours the soaked cake.
Rich thick custard: Adds richness and a creamy layer that moistens the cake further.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, brandy, sugar, currant):

Almondthe original
Chestnutfits about as well
Peasfits about as well
Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, brandy, sugar, currant. 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.