Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Our Family Raised 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 batter
In a large bowl, combine the hop yeast or sponge rising, sugar, butter, chopped raisins, egg, cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg, and baking soda.
Stir the mixture until it is as stiff as possible.
Cover the bowl and let it rise until night.
Bake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Bake for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the heat of the oven.
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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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,070 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Hop yeast or sponge rising
- Leavens the batter so it rises and becomes lighter in texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the crumb.
- Egg
- Binds the ingredients and adds structure to the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidic ingredients to help the cake rise and brown.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
The step that matters
Stir until as stiff as possible. A stiff batter holds its shape and traps gas from the leavening, so the cake rises well instead of spreading flat. Overly loose batter can collapse or bake dense.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, raisin, egg, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Clovethe original
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, raisin, egg, 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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