Name: Mocha Cakes
Ingredients: sponge cake (see Cream Sponge Cake); icing; shredded almonds; confectioners' sugar

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Mocha Cakes

Ingredients

sponge cake (see Cream Sponge Cake)
icing
shredded almonds
confectioners' sugar

Directions

Bake sponge cake in a sheet 1½ inches thick.
Once cold, cut the cake into 2-inch squares.
Pair the squares with icing in between and on the top and sides.
Scatter shredded almonds over the cakes.
Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

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.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,130 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).