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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense, spiced cake with raisins, currants, and citron, baked at 300°F for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, cold coffee, sugar, and molasses.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

  4. Stir in the cinnamon, cloves, grated nutmeg, and brandy.

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

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda, then add to the mixture.

  2. Mix until just combined.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 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. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help give the cake structure as they set in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and coffee acidity to lighten the batter as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the cake.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Mixing in the flour and baking soda. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense. Mixing only until combined keeps the crumb tender.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, coffee, sugar, molasses, egg, 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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