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Dessert

Raisin Cakes

A sweet, spiced shortbread-like cake with raisins baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Raisin 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 the dough

  1. Sift the flour into a bowl.

  2. Rub in the butter.

  3. Add the sugar, nutmeg, and spices.

  4. Finely chop the raisins and mix them in.

  5. Beat the egg and add it along with the baking soda mixed with milk.

  6. Work into a paste, adding more milk if necessary.

Shape and bake

  1. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and roll it out to about ½ inch thick.

  2. Cut out with a round cutter.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough, giving the cakes their body once baked.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour through the dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown as they bake.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the mixture to help the cakes rise and lighten.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cakes.

The step that matters

Work into a paste, adding more milk if necessary. Flour hydrates gradually, so adding too much milk at once can make the dough sticky and hard to shape, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly. Add milk slowly and stop once the dough holds together.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cinnamon, flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, raisin):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cinnamon, flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, raisin. 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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