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Dessert

Cinnamon, Ob Ubmon Cakes

A simple cinnamon cake made with flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cinnamon, Ob Ubmon Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Melt the butter and mix it into the flour until it resembles crumbs.

  2. Add the sugar and cinnamon, then combine with the eggs to form a firm paste.

  3. Roll out the paste to a thickness of about ¼ inch and cut into shapes.

Bake and store

  1. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 to 20 minutes, or until fully cooked.

  2. Once cooled, store the cakes in a clean, dry tin canister.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Fine dry flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Butter
Coats the flour and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown lightly in the oven.
Eggs
Bind the dough into a firm paste and add structure and moisture.

The step that matters

Baking at a gentle oven temperature. A low, gentle oven cooks the cakes through and dries them without over-browning the outside. Too hot an oven can scorch the surface before the center is cooked.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

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