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Dessert

Princess Cake

A fruit and nut cake made with currants, sultanas, almonds, mixed peel, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Princess Cake

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.

Prepare the fruit and nuts

  1. Shred the mixed peel into thin strips and place in a bowl.

  2. Clean the currants and sultanas, then add them to the peel.

  3. Blanch, peel, and chop the almonds, then add to the bowl.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until soft.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each in thoroughly.

  3. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then stir into the mixture.

Bake and cool

  1. Prepare a cake tin with parchment paper and pour half of the mixture into it.

  2. Layer the mixed fruit on top, then cover with the remaining mixture.

  3. Press down to level the top and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1.5 hours.

  4. Once done, turn the cake onto a wire rack to cool.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and stays light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, tender texture when creamed with butter.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy fruit pieces distributed through the cake.

The step that matters

Beating in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one emulsify fully into the creamed butter and sugar. Adding them too quickly can cause the mixture to curdle, which may affect the cake's texture and rise.

Swap the currant

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

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

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