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Dessert

Imperial Cake

A rich cake made with butter, sugar, flour, raisins, almonds, nutmeg, citron, and whisky or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Imperial Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and flour together.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together.

  3. Add the beaten egg whites to the yolk mixture.

  4. Mix the yolk and white mixture with the creamed butter and flour.

  5. Dredge the fruit with flour and gradually add it to the batter.

  6. Stir in the whisky or brandy.

Bake

  1. Bake in a loaf pan at 300°F (150°C) for four 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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lightness while yolks add richness and help bind the batter.
Butter
Creamed with flour, it adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Light brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a caramel note.
Flour
Provides structure as the batter sets in the oven.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Whisky or brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and helps keep the cake moist.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that gives the cake lift. Folding them in gently, rather than stirring hard, keeps that air from collapsing and keeps the batter light.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, raisin, egg, almond, whisky):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, raisin, egg, almond, whisky. 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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