Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Banbury Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Roll out the puff pastry and cut into rounds 5 or 6 inches in diameter.
Make the filling
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the flour, egg yolks, candied peel, currants, mixed spice, and cinnamon. Mix well.
Assemble and bake
Place a spoonful of the filling on half of each pastry round.
Fold the pastry over and seal the edges.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
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 + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Currant + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,099 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, crisp outer casing that encloses the filling.
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to add richness and a tender texture to the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps the butter cream to a light, fluffy texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the filling so it holds together rather than running out during baking.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the filling and add richness and moisture.
- Currants
- Provide sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the filling.
The step that matters
Sealing the edges. If the edges are not sealed firmly, the filling can leak out during baking. Pressing the pastry edges together keeps the filling enclosed as the pastry rises and browns.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, cinnamon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, cinnamon. 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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