Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓
Election 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 sponge
In a large bowl, combine warm milk, sugar, and yeast cake.
Add salt and enough flour to create a stiff batter.
Cover and let rise overnight.
Mix and shape
In the morning, mix in butter, sugar, eggs, nutmeg or mace, and raisins.
Knead the mixture by hand for 20 minutes or more.
Transfer the batter into pans and let it stand for 1 hour.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.
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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,377 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).
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Milk + buttertop 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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Yeast cake
- Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the loaf set and hold its shape.
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and chewy pockets of moisture throughout the bread.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
The step that matters
Kneading the dough by hand for 20 minutes or more. Kneading develops the gluten network that traps gas from the yeast. Too little kneading leaves a dense loaf with poor rise, while the raisins should be worked in evenly so they do not clump.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar, flour, butter, egg, raisin):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Capersfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, flour, butter, egg, raisin. 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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