Why it works: Brandy and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
White Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Beat the butter until creamy.
Add the sugar and mix well.
Whisk the egg yolks and whites separately, then add them to the mixture.
Stir in the candied orange peel, mace, and brandy.
Gradually add the flour and mix until combined.
Fold in the currants and almonds if using.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan.
Bake in a well-heated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 2 hours.
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.
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Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mace + curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,791 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Orange + curranttop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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
- Fresh butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Whisked and added to the batter, they add structure as they set and enrich the crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Its proteins form gluten and set the structure of the cake as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, aerated batter.
- Currants
- Folded in as dried fruit, adding chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beating the butter until creamy. Creaming softened butter with sugar traps air in the fat, which helps the cake rise and gives a light texture. Under-beaten butter leaves a denser crumb.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, orange, brandy, flour, currant):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, orange, brandy, flour, currant. 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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