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Dessert

Fig Eater Cake

A layered cake made with figs, sugar, flour, butter, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Eater 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

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the vanilla extract and milk.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

Bake and fill

  1. Divide the batter into 4 layers and bake until golden brown.

  2. For the fig filling, cook the chopped figs with hot water until soft.

  3. Stir in the powdered sugar until well combined.

  4. Once the cake layers are cool, spread the fig filling between the layers.

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. Vanilla + figtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture to the crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure as they set and add moisture and richness to the cake.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the layers rise and become light.
Figs
Cooked into a soft filling that adds moisture, sweetness and fruit flavor between the layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps give a light, fluffy batter.

The step that matters

Cooling the layers before filling. Spreading warm fig filling on warm cake layers can melt the filling and make the layers slide or turn soggy. Cool layers hold the filling in place and keep the texture intact.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, vanilla, milk, butter, egg):

  1. Figthe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, vanilla, milk, butter, egg. 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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