Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Christmas 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
In a bowl, melt the butter and treacle together.
Add the bicarbonate of soda and stir for about 5 minutes until it resembles yeast.
Mix in the remaining ingredients thoroughly.
Bake
Pour the mixture into a greased cake tin lined with paper.
Bake for about 1 hour in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) or until a skewer comes out clean.
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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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that keeps the cake tender and moist.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep golden colour to the crumb.
- Eggs
- Provide structure and help bind the batter together as it sets.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness, dark colour, moisture and a rich molasses flavour.
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Releases gas when stirred into the mixture, helping the cake rise and lighten.
The step that matters
Stirring in the bicarbonate of soda. Bicarbonate of soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets the melted mixture. Stirring it in for the full time spreads the bubbles evenly through the batter, so the cake rises uniformly rather than in patches or with a dense layer.
“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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