Skip to main content
Dessert

Cakes, Buns, and Scones

A cinnamon and lemon cake with butter, eggs, and almonds, baked and topped with egg white glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and almond 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 ↓

Cakes, Buns, and Scones

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Mix the cinnamon, sugar, flour, and lemon rind in a bowl.

  2. Beat in the clarified butter and eggs for several minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking tin and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

Glaze and finish

  1. Mix the egg white with the powdered sugar.

  2. Brush the egg white mixture on top of the cake.

  3. Sprinkle the chopped almonds on top.

  4. Return the cake to the oven for a few minutes to brown the 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.

  1. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Clarified butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg white
Forms a glossy glaze on the cake top that helps the almonds stick.
Chopped almonds
Add crunch and toast to a golden brown on the surface.

The step that matters

Returning the cake to brown the almonds. The almonds and egg white glaze brown quickly in the oven. Too long and they scorch and turn bitter, so check them closely during the short final bake.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, flour, butter, egg, almond. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes