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Dessert

Scotch Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, sugar, spices, eggs, baked in a pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Scotch Cake

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 ↓

Scotch Cake

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.

Make the dough

  1. Stir the eggs into the sugar without beating.

  2. Add the spices and stir to combine.

  3. Mix the flour and baking soda together, then stir all ingredients together.

Shape and pan

  1. Roll the dough like cookies.

  2. Grease a baking pan well and place the rolled dough in the pan.

  3. Sprinkle water over the cakes.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Sifted flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and moisture.
Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep caramel flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the dough and help it rise.

The step that matters

Stir all ingredients together. Once the flour is added, stir only until combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the cakes tough and dense.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cinnamon, sugar, allspice, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cinnamon, sugar, allspice, egg, 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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