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 ↓
Raisin Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and egg yolk, mixing well.
Stir in the milk.
In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.
Fold in the raisins or currants coated with flour.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, cover with boiled frosting.
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 + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps brown it while creaming with butter aerates the batter.
- Eggs
- Provide structure as they set and add moisture and richness to the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, causing the cake to rise and become light.
- Raisins or currants
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and mixing gently keeps the batter smooth and limits gluten development, which would otherwise make the cake tough.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour. 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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