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Dessert

Sultana Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, butter, powdered sugar, eggs, cream, sultanas, baking soda, cream of tartar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Sultana Cake

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Sultana Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  2. Sift the cream of tartar with the flour.

  3. Wash, dry, and dredge the raisins with flour.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the beaten egg yolks with the creamed butter and sugar, then add the spices and brandy.

  2. Beat the mixture for three minutes, then gently stir in the cream or milk.

  3. Alternately add the flour and whipped egg whites, mixing gently.

  4. Finally, fold in the dredged raisins.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake in two large loaves or four smaller ones at 300°F (150°C) until done.

  2. Ice the cake thickly once cooled.

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.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 sets as the cake bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter, and whipped whites add air that lifts the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that pairs with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
Sultana raisins
Add sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Alternately add the flour and whipped egg whites, mixing gently. Whipped whites hold air that lifts the cake. Folding gently keeps that air in place, while vigorous mixing once flour is added develops gluten and makes the crumb tough and dense.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, cream, nutmeg, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, cream, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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