Name: Spice Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup plain cake batter; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 grated nutmeg; 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Spice Cake

Ingredients

1 cup plain cake batter
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Prepare a batter similar to white mountain cake.
Remove 1 cup of the batter and mix in the ground cloves, grated nutmeg, and ground cinnamon.
In a prepared pan, layer the plain batter and spiced batter, dotting the plain batter with spoonfuls of the spiced batter until the pan is filled.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).