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Poppyseed & Honey Cake

A deliciously moist cake with a tangy strawberry-flavoured icing

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and strawberry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 354 recipes mention both. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

The recipe

CUTS INTO 8-10 SLICES
Prep25 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease a 20cm round cake tin with some of the butter, line the base with baking paper, then dust the inside with a little self-raising flour and caster sugar.

  2. Beat the softened butter and golden caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the clear honey until fully combined.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of self-raising flour with each egg to help stop the mixture curdling.

  4. Sift in the remaining self-raising flour and the cornflour. Add the poppy seeds and fold gently until just combined, without overmixing.

  5. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

  6. Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

  7. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl. Stir in the sieved strawberry purée a little at a time until you have a thick, spreadable icing. Add a splash of water only if it is too stiff.

  8. Spread the strawberry icing over the cooled cake, leave it to set for a few minutes, then cut into 8 to 10 slices.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Honey + strawberrytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together354 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Butter + poppy seedtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together257 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  3. Butter + honeytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  4. Honey + poppy seedtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the poppy seed

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, honey, egg, strawberry):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Poppy seedthe original
  3. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, honey, egg, strawberry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).