Name: Spanish Cake
Ingredients: 12 eggs, cleared of trails; ¾ pound double-refined sugar; 1 pound dried flour; ½ pound almonds, beaten to a paste; 4 tablespoons orange-flower water; 1 glass mountain wine; ½ ounce pounded cinnamon; butter for greasing the pan

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Spanish Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

In a large bowl, froth the eggs.
Gradually mix in the sugar, flour, and almond paste.
Add the orange-flower water, mountain wine, and cinnamon.
Continue mixing for about 45 minutes.

Bake

Butter a baking pan and pour in the mixture.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until set.

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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,437 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 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

Eggs: Frothed eggs trap air, giving the cake lift and a light structure.
Flour: Starch and gluten set during baking to give the cake its body.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps keep it tender and moist.
Almonds: Add richness and moisture, and give the crumb a dense, tender texture.
Cinnamon: Adds warm aroma and flavour to the cake.

The step that matters

Froth the eggs well. Whipped eggs hold air bubbles that expand in the oven and lift the batter. Under-whipped eggs give a dense, heavy cake.

Swap the orange

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Orangethe original

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