Name: Sultaha Tipsy Cake
Ingredients: 12 square sponge cakes or slices of sponge cake (preferably stale); ½ pound preserve or marmalade; ⅓ cup sherry or raisin wine; 2 ounces sultana raisins; 1 ounce citron; 1 pint custard (see preceding recipe)

Why it works: Sherry and raisin work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 386 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Sultaha Tipsy Cake

Ingredients

12 square sponge cakes or slices of sponge cake (preferably stale)
½ pound preserve or marmalade
⅓ cup sherry or raisin wine
2 ounces sultana raisins
1 ounce citron
1 pint custard (see preceding recipe)

Directions

Prepare

Cut the sponge cake into slices if using a large cake.
Spread jam on the slices and arrange them in a glass dish.
Soak the slices in wine.

Assemble and finish

Pour hot custard over the soaked cake.
Sprinkle sultana raisins and citron on top.

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.

Sherry + raisintop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together386 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cake: Forms the base layer that soaks up the wine and custard.
Preserve or marmalade: Adds sweetness and fruity flavour, and helps bind the layers together.
Sherry or raisin wine: Moistens the sponge and adds aroma and a boozy flavour.
Custard: Adds moisture and richness as it soaks into the cake.
Sultana raisins: Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness on top.

The step that matters

Soak the slices in wine. Sponge cake that is too dry will not absorb the wine evenly, while over-soaking turns it soggy and collapses the texture. Stale sponge soaks up liquid best, so let the slices soak until they are moist throughout but still hold their shape.

“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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Sultaha Tipsy Cake