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Dessert

Scots Seed Cake

A buttery cake with almonds, candied orange peel, citron, nutmeg, caraway seeds, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Scots Seed 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Gradually add the sugar and then the beaten egg yolks.

  3. Mix in the flour a little at a time.

  4. Add the sweetmeats, almonds, nutmeg, and caraway seeds.

  5. Stir in the brandy.

Bake

  1. Butter a cake pan and pour in the batter, filling it nearly to the top.

  2. Smooth the top and sprinkle with caraway comfits.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) without moving it until nearly done.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 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. Nutmeg + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, when used, add lift and structure as the cake sets.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes and holds the batter together.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps cream the butter to a light texture.
Candied orange peel
Adds sweetness and a bright citrus aroma throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake without moving the cake. Jostling a batter before it sets can knock out trapped air and cause the centre to sink or turn dense. Keeping the pan still lets the structure set evenly.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, rose, sugar, almond, nutmeg, caraway):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, rose, sugar, almond, nutmeg, caraway. 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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