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Dessert

Birthday Cake

A sweet cake with sugar, butter, flour, almonds, mixed peel, sultanas, spice, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Birthday Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Add the sugar and flour, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the sultanas and chopped almonds.

  4. Add the mixed peel and spice.

  5. Incorporate the beaten yolks and whites of the eggs.

  6. Stir thoroughly and pour in the brandy.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a prepared cake tin.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 3.5 hours.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,127 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake bakes and sets.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and creaming it traps air that gives a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as the eggs and butter set.
White sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps give it a tender texture and browned crust.
Sultanas
Add moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds liquid and aroma, flavouring the cake as it is stirred through the batter.

The step that matters

Bake low and long. A rich fruit cake with this much butter and egg needs a moderate oven for a long time so the centre sets fully before the outside over-browns. Baking too hot risks a dark crust and a raw middle.

“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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