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Dessert

Common Seed Cakes

A yeast-based cake with all-purpose flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, caraway seeds, candied peel, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 200 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Common Seed Cakes

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 the sponge

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

  2. Make a cavity in the center and add the yeast and a little warm milk to create a sponge.

Make the dough

  1. Once the sponge is well risen, add the candied peel, beaten egg, and caraway seeds.

  2. Mix the ingredients well, adding warm milk as needed to achieve a stiff dough.

Shape, rise and bake

  1. Shape the dough into a cake and let it rise in a warm place.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Nutmeg + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 dough together as it rises and bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Yeast
Leavens the dough by producing gas, so the sponge rises before the cake is shaped.
Egg
Adds structure and richness to the dough and helps bind the ingredients.
Caraway seeds
Contribute the characteristic aromatic flavor of the cake.

The step that matters

Achieving a stiff dough. Warm milk must be added gradually. Too much liquid makes the dough slack and hard to shape, while too little leaves it dry and stiff enough to resist rising evenly.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, milk, egg, caraway):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, nutmeg, milk, egg, caraway. 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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