Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓
Fruit Layer 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the wine, chopped raisins, and eggs, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.
Bake and assemble
Divide the batter into 8 equal portions and bake each layer for about 15-20 minutes.
Let the layers cool before frosting between each with white frosting.
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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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's layers together as they bake.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and help set the crumb as the cake bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter to produce gas that lifts the layers as they bake.
- Butter
- Adds fat and tenderness, and helps carry flavor through the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps brown the layers while they bake.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Stirring the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the layers tough and dense. Stir only until the flour disappears so the crumb stays tender.
Swap the raisin
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, wine, flour, egg):
- Raisinthe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Lemonfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, wine, flour, egg. 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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