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Dessert

Vanity Cake

A layered cake with almond, citron, and raisin mixture, flavored with brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Vanity Cake

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 ↓

Vanity 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 batters

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, 2 cups flour, 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons baking powder, and the whites of 2 eggs. Mix well.

  3. In another bowl, mix the yolks of 2 eggs, 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup butter, 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons baking powder, and 1 tablespoon brandy.

Add the fruit

  1. Chop the almonds, citron, and raisins, then dredge them with flour.

  2. Combine the fruit mixture with 2 cups of flour.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the two mixtures in a baking dish, with boiled icing between the layers.

  2. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the batter bind and set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture and sweetness, and helps the crust brown.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.

The step that matters

Dredge the chopped fruit in flour. Flour coats the almonds, citron, and raisins so they are less likely to sink to the bottom of the batter and more evenly distributed through the cake.

“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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