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Dessert

Spanish Bun

A sweet cinnamon and nutmeg bun baked in a flat pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Spanish Bun

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spanish Bun

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg to make a standard cake batter.

  3. Pour the batter into a buttered flat pan.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

  2. Cover with boiled frosting made from brown sugar, or if serving immediately, top with meringue.

  3. Brown the meringue in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavour.
Eggs
Provide structure as they set, and add moisture and richness to the batter.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the batter as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the batter rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Brown the meringue in a cool oven. Meringue can weep, scorch, or turn tough if baked too hot. A low oven dries and colours it gently, so it stays crisp on the outside and soft inside.

“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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