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Dessert

Seed Cake

A cake made with flour, butter, sugar, spices, seeds, candied lemon peel, eggs, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Seed Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt.

  3. Rub in the butter until well combined.

  4. Add the allspice, nutmeg, caraway seeds, and candied lemon peel.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the milk.

  2. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon.

  3. Sprinkle in the baking powder and mix gently.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 1 hour or until golden brown.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Allspice + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help give the cake its structure and richness.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps the crumb stay moist.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and become light.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cake and contributes to browning as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.

The step that matters

Sprinkle in the baking powder and mix gently. Baking powder starts releasing gas as soon as it is wet and heated, so overmixing knocks out bubbles and can leave the cake dense. Adding it last and mixing gently keeps the rise even.

Swap the caraway

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, allspice, nutmeg, lemon, egg. 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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