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Dessert

Tipsy Cake

A layered sponge cake soaked in sherry, topped with raspberry jam and custard, garnished with cherries, angelica, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Angelica and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 135 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Tipsy Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the cake

  1. Split the sponge cakes and spread a good layer of raspberry jam on each half.

  2. Replace the halves to form a compact cake.

Soak and finish

  1. Pour the sherry over the cake and let it soak for about 1 hour.

  2. Prepare the boiled custard as directed and let it cool.

  3. Pour the cooled custard over the cake.

  4. Garnish with cherries, angelica, or baked almonds.

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. Angelica + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Raspberry + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Raspberry + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sherry + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Raspberry + angelicatop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cakes
Provide the light, porous base that soaks up the sherry and holds the layers together.
Raspberry jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour, and moistens the sponge between layers.
Boiled custard
Adds moisture and a smooth, creamy richness over the soaked cake.
Sherry
Soaks into the sponge to add moisture and a distinctive aromatic, slightly acidic flavour.

The step that matters

Letting the sherry soak in. Sponge is porous, so the sherry must be given time to absorb evenly; pouring too fast or skipping the soak leaves the cake wet in places and dry in others.

Swap the angelica

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raspberry, sherry, almond):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raspberry, sherry, almond. 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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