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A buttery currant cake flavored with almonds, spices, sherry, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. Work the butter to a cream in a large bowl.

  2. Add the sugar to the butter and mix well.

  3. Incorporate the beaten egg yolks and the beaten almonds until the mixture is white and thick.

  4. Stir in the sack, brandy, and spices.

  5. Gradually add the flour, mixing continuously.

  6. Fold in the currants and sweetmeats.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into two hoops (cake pans) and bake for 4 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to create a rich, tender crumb and fat-based flavor.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify with the butter, helping the batter set firm and thick.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps trap air when creamed with butter.
Currants
Add fruity sweetness and moisture to the finished cake.
Almonds
Add body, a nutty flavor, and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Beating the egg yolks and almonds into the creamed butter. Yolks must be fully incorporated until the mixture is white and thick. Adding them too fast can curdle the emulsion, and a broken batter bakes up coarse and greasy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

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