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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with butter, brown sugar, eggs, raisins, currants, citron, molasses, spices, brandy, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Fruit 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.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  3. Add the grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the molasses and sour milk.

  5. Mix in the beaten egg yolks and brandy.

  6. Gradually add the flour, reserving some to dredge the fruit.

  7. Fold in the raisins, currants, and citron.

  8. Gently stir in the beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a pan lined with parchment paper.

  2. Bake for 2 hours.

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.

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

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and binding; whites, folded in last, lighten the batter.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to help the cake rise and darken.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep color, and a rich, slightly acidic flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy moisture and sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air that lightens the batter. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a denser cake, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, raisin, molasses, milk, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, raisin, molasses, milk, nutmeg. 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.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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