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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, spices, rose water, brandy, raisins, currants, citron, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

  2. Beat the eggs separately.

  3. Line a cake pan with well-greased paper.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the yolks of the eggs.

  2. Alternately add the flour and the beaten egg whites.

  3. Mix in the rose water, brandy, and spices, followed by the currants and raisins.

  4. Layer the batter with the citron and almonds in the pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 4 hours in a steady oven.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whites add lift and a light structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a rich, tender crumb.
Sugar
Creamed with butter, it adds sweetness and helps give the cake a tender texture.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the batter that holds the fruit and nuts in place.
Raisins
Provide sweetness and moisture, and flouring them helps keep them suspended in the batter.
Currants
Add moisture and tartness, and flouring them helps keep them suspended in the batter.

The step that matters

Bake for 4 hours in a steady oven. A long, low bake lets the heavy, fruit-filled batter cook through evenly. Too much heat sets and browns the outside before the centre is done, leaving it raw or dense.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, clove, cinnamon, 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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