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Dessert

Connecticut Election Cake

A yeast-leavened cake with raisins, citron, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Connecticut Election Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix all the flour, half of the sugar, and half of the butter until well combined.

  2. Add the yeast and gradually mix in warm milk until the mixture has a biscuit-like consistency.

  3. Cover and let it rise overnight.

Finish and bake

  1. In the morning, add the remaining butter, sugar, and eggs, then let it rise again.

  2. Stir in the fruit, spices, and baking soda.

  3. Pour the batter into greased tins.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the cake set and hold its crumb.
Yeast
Produces gas during the long rise, leavening the dough and giving it an airy texture.
Butter and lard
Add fat for tenderness and moisture, softening the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning of the crust during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to add rise and lighten the batter.

The step that matters

Letting the dough rise overnight. Yeast needs time to produce gas and develop flavor; a rise cut short leaves the cake dense, while over-proofing can collapse its structure.

“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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