Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Queen Cakes
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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Wash the butter in rose or orange-flower water. Squeeze out excess water.
Butter the pans.
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, work the butter with half the flour and the egg yolks until well combined.
Add the remaining flour, sugar, orange-flower water, ground mace, and currants; mix well.
Fill them half full with the batter.
Sprinkle double refined sugar on top.
Bake in the oven until golden.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mace + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,791 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Orange + curranttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds richness and tenderness, and traps air when worked with sugar and flour.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and emulsify the butter, helping the batter bind and set.
- Egg whites
- Add lift and structure to the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps give it a golden browning on the surface.
- Currants
- Add concentrated fruit sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Fill the pans half full. Batter rises as it bakes; filling only halfway leaves room for expansion so the cakes do not overflow or become dense at the edges.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, orange, currant):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, orange, currant. 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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