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Dessert

Fig Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, milk, raisins, figs, almonds, honey, flour, baking powder, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Fig 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and honey, mixing well.

  4. Soak the raisins and chopped figs in brandy for 30 minutes.

  5. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Make the batter

  1. Add the soaked fruit and flour mixture to the butter mixture, then stir in the milk.

  2. Mix well and pour the batter into two loaf pans.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until 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.

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 + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  2. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Fig + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  5. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set when baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, fluffy texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes airy.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness as the dried fruit plumps in the batter.

The step that matters

Checking for doneness. The cake is dense and fruit-filled, so it can look set outside while the center is still wet. Testing the center with a toothpick confirms the batter has baked through, since the moist fruit can hold extra moisture that delays setting.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, fig, almond, honey):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, fig, almond, honey. 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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