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Dessert

Banbury Cakes

Banbury cakes are sweet rolls with currants, candied peel, spices, and honey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Banbury Cakes

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.

Make the filling

  1. Set a sponge with yeast, warm milk, and flour.

  2. Once it has worked a little, mix in currants, candied orange and lemon peel, spices, and honey.

Shape the cakes

  1. Roll out puff pastry to ¼ inch thick.

  2. Cut into 4-inch rounds.

  3. Place a small quantity of the mixture on each round.

  4. Fold and seal into an oval shape.

  5. Press flat with your hand.

Bake and serve

  1. Sift sugar over the top.

  2. Bake on a plate for 15 minutes in a moderate oven 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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the sponge so the dough rises and becomes light.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the filling and dough together.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture to the filling and helps it brown.
Currants
Provide chewy texture and concentrated sweetness in the filling.
Candied orange peel
Adds sweet, bitter citrus aroma and chewy texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Sealing the rounds. If the edges are not pressed firmly closed, the filling can leak out during baking, leaving the cakes dry and the sugar burnt on the plate.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, orange, lemon, cinnamon, allspice, ginger):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, orange, lemon, cinnamon, allspice, ginger. 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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