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Basil Cake with Balsamic Strawberries

"I developed this cake for an Easter party and it was beautiful! It was a refreshing new blend of flavors and now I use fresh herbs as often as I can when I making desserts! This cake sits well. You can serve the berries on the side as well."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and mint match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 393 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The recipe

1 fluted tube cake
Prep15 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (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 (175°C). Grease a fluted tube pan with about 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil.

  2. In a large bowl, beat the cake mix, pudding mix, remaining vegetable oil, eggs and sour cream for about 2 minutes until smooth.

  3. Stir the chopped fresh basil into the batter until evenly distributed.

  4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  5. While the cake bakes, combine the balsamic vinegar and white sugar in a small saucepan. Simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes until slightly syrupy, then let cool.

  6. Place the hulled, quartered strawberries in a bowl and pour the cooled balsamic syrup over them. Stir gently and let stand 15 minutes.

  7. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a serving plate and let cool completely.

  8. Stir the chopped fresh mint into the strawberries, adding more to taste. Spoon the balsamic strawberries over the cake slices to serve.

By allrecipes. 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. Basil + minttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together12,294 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Vanilla and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 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 mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, vanilla, basil, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Peppermintbetter flavor fit
  3. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, vanilla, basil, vinegar, sugar. 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).