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Dessert

Twelfth Cakes

A yeast cake with currants, spices, and candied peel baked in hoops.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Twelfth Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Make a cavity in the center of the flour and set a sponge with the yeast and warm milk.

  2. Add the butter, sugar, currants, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, candied peel, and citron around the sponge.

  3. Once the sponge has risen, mix all ingredients together with a little warm milk.

Bake and serve

  1. Prepare the baking hoops by lining them with paper and buttering them.

  2. Fill the hoops with the mixture and bake at 400°F (200°C) until done.

  3. When nearly cool, ice with prepared sugar or serve plain.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Milk + buttertop 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. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cakes their structure.
Warm milk
Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast sponge, giving the dough moisture.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness, moisture and chewy fruit pieces throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Let the sponge rise before mixing. The yeast needs time to ferment the warm milk and flour mixture, producing gas that leavens the dough. Mixing in the other ingredients before the sponge has risen can leave the cakes dense.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, butter, sugar, cinnamon, clove, mace):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, sugar, cinnamon, clove, mace. 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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