Why it works: Cinnamon and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,147 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Walnuts
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Beat the eggs, sugar, and cinnamon to a stiff froth.
Mix in the powdered walnuts.
Bake and finish
Spread the walnut mixture over the top of the cake.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until lightly browned.
Let the cake cool, then cut it into squares or diamond-shaped pieces.
Pack the pieces in biscuit tins with a sheet of white paper between each layer.
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.
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Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,147 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + walnuttop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + walnuttop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,147 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon 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
- Whipped into a stiff froth, they give the cake its airy structure.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the beaten eggs hold their foam.
- Powdered walnuts
- Add nutty flavour and body to the topping as it bakes.
The step that matters
Beat the eggs, sugar, and cinnamon to a stiff froth. Eggs trap air when whipped, and that foam is what lifts the cake. If it is under-beaten, the cake will be dense and flat. Over-beating can make it collapse, so beat until the mixture is stiff but still glossy.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cinnamon):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Pecansfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cinnamon. 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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