Name: A Good Family Cake
Ingredients: 1 quart (4 cups) of dough; ½ pound (2 sticks) of butter; ½ pound of moist sugar; 1 cup of cream; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon of allspice; 1 pound of currants; 2 ounces of candied peel, chopped small; 1 ounce of caraway seeds (optional)

Why it works: Allspice and caraway share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 69 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A Good Family Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix and bake

In a large bowl, mix the dough, butter, sugar, cream, and eggs until well combined.
Stir in the allspice, currants, and candied peel or caraway seeds.
Pour the mixture into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 1.5 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Allspice + carawaytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together69 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Allspice + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,359 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
Butter + curranttop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
Eggs: Bind the batter and set as they bake, giving the cake structure.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Currants: Add fruity sweetness and chewy pockets throughout the cake.
Allspice: Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness with a toothpick. The cake is done when the center has set. Eggs and starch firm up as heat reaches the middle, so removing the cake early can leave a wet, sunken center. Check the center, not just the edges.

Swap the caraway

The recipe marks caraway as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cream, egg, allspice, currant):

Nutmegfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Clovefits better
Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream, egg, allspice, 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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A Good Family Cake