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Dessert

Spiced Cake

A moist cake flavored with vanilla, lemon, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Spiced 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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs until light.

  2. Stir in the butter, then add the vanilla and lemon extracts and the milk, and mix well.

  3. Sift the flour twice.

  4. Combine the sifted flour with baking powder, sugar, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  5. Sift the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and beat well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

  2. Bake until golden.

  3. Layer with frosting or whipped cream.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten until light, they add structure and lift to the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter, loosening it for even baking.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs until light. Beating eggs traps air that expands during baking, so the cake rises lightly. Under-beaten eggs give a denser crumb.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, egg, milk, vanilla, lemon):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, egg, milk, vanilla, lemon. 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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