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Dessert

Molasses Fruit Cake

A moist fruit cake made with molasses, raisins, currants, citron, and spices.

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 ↓

Molasses Fruit 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

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

  3. Add the eggs, milk, molasses, lemon juice, and lemon rind; mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cloves, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

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

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light texture when creamed with butter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, rich sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the fruit. Gradually combining dry ingredients and stirring only until just combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender rather than tough. Fruit folded in gently stays evenly distributed instead of sinking to the bottom.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, cinnamon, egg, nutmeg, butter, raisin. 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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