Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Spice 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.
Prepare
Sift the flour several times.
Mix in the baking powder.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar until very light.
Add the flour and egg whites to the mixture, combining well.
Spice and combine
Take 1 cup of the batter.
Stir in the spices.
Grease and line a mold.
Add 3 tablespoons of cold water to the spiced batter and stir well.
Drop the spiced batter into the white batter and mix gently.
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.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,536 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
-
Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,331 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Trap air and add structure, giving the cake a light, open crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps hold air for a tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and carries flavour through the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the protein and starch network that sets the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the spiced portion of the batter.
The step that matters
Drop the spiced batter into the white batter and mix gently. The egg-white batter holds air that gives the cake its lightness. Vigorous stirring deflates it and makes the crumb dense, so the spiced batter should be folded in with slow, gentle strokes.
Swap the allspice
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg):
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Allspicethe original
- Clovefits about as well
- Turmericfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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