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Dessert

German Honey Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, honey, almonds, lemon rind, flour, baking powder, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

German Honey Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Stir in the honey and let it boil, stirring briskly.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Mix in the finely chopped lemon rind, blanched and bruised almonds, nutmeg, flour, and baking powder.

  5. Leave the mixture in a cool place for 12 hours.

Bake

  1. Roll out and bake for 25 minutes 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.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Honey
Provides sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake stay soft and keep well.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake once it is rolled out and baked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to lighten the dough.
Almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavour to the dough.

The step that matters

Let the cooled honey mixture cool fully before mixing in the dry ingredients. Honey boiled hot can make the dough too loose and can affect how the baking powder reacts. Letting it cool and then resting the dough for 12 hours lets the flour hydrate and the dough firm up, so it can be rolled out.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, honey, almond, flour, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, honey, almond, flour, nutmeg. 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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