Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Composition 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 batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the beaten eggs and mix well.
Stir in the sweet milk.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
Fold in the chopped raisins and grated nutmeg.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake and serve
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cake cool before serving.
This cake improves by standing several days.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender crumb through trapped air and fat.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cake and helps give a soft, tender texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Adding the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture gradually and mix only until combined. Overmixing develops too much gluten in the flour, which makes the cake tough and dense.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, raisin, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, raisin, flour. 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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