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Raisin Filling for Layer Cakes

A sweet raisin filling made with coffee sugar syrup, egg whites, raisins, corn starch, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Raisin Filling for Layer Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the coffee sugar and water for 5 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Pour the boiling syrup over the egg whites and mix until cool.

  3. Seed and chop the raisins, then combine them with the mixture.

Make the frosting

  1. In a bowl, combine the egg whites with the corn starch and enough pulverized sugar to make a stiff frosting.

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. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  2. Raisin + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together180 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Coffee + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together247 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  5. Coffee + raisintop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together487 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Coffee sugar
Dissolves into a boiled syrup that sweetens the filling and gives it body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the filling its light, airy structure.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the filling.
Corn starch
Thickens and stabilizes the frosting so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling syrup over the egg whites. The hot syrup cooks the whipped egg whites into a stable, glossy foam. Pour it in a thin, steady stream while beating; a fast pour or cold whites can cause the foam to deflate or stay loose.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, sugar, egg, corn. 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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