Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Christmas Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift the baking powder 2-3 times with the flour onto a sheet of paper to mix well.
Soften the butter and sugar in a clean pan in front of the fire.
Weigh the fruit onto the flour, ensuring they are cleaned and free from stalks and stones.
Chop the candied peel into thin shreds.
Add the shredded candied peel to the fruit and flour.
Break the eggs into a clean bowl and beat them.
Make the batter
Cream the softened butter and sugar by hand.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the flour and fruit mixture.
Moisten with milk to achieve a cake batter consistency.
Bake
Bake in well-greased and lined round or square tins.
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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake once baked.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sultanas
- Add sweetness and moisture to the finished cake.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a cake batter consistency.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Eggs added too quickly can curdle the creamed butter and sugar. Beating each egg in fully keeps the emulsion stable, so the batter stays smooth and holds its air for an even rise.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, milk. 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.
More christmas cake recipes
You might also like
Red Currant Jelly65 recipes
Currant Ice Cream32 recipes
Currant Sherbet9 recipes
Currant and Raspberry Ice7 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.