Why it works: Flour and caraway match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,435 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Rich Seed 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and flour alternately, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the caraway seeds, salt, baking powder, and enough milk to achieve a smooth batter.
Pour the batter into a lined and greased cake tin.
Bake
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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.
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Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,435 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and rise.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds tenderness and flavour, and traps air when creamed with sugar.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, aerated texture when creamed.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating butter and sugar until light and fluffy traps air bubbles that expand in the oven. Under-creaming yields a denser cake, so beat until the mixture visibly lightens.
Swap the caraway
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, butter, sugar, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Carawaythe original
- Jalapenofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, butter, sugar, 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.
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