Skip to main content
Dessert

Grandma Brady’s Black Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with raisins, currants, citron, figs, dates, chocolate, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Fig and dates work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Grandma Brady’s Black Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl, then add the sugar and beat well.

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs and add to the mixture.

  3. Sift 1 lb. of flour with the baking powder and add it alternately with the well-beaten egg whites.

  4. Dredge the fruit in the remaining ½ lb. of flour.

  5. Add the spice and chocolate to the batter and mix well.

  6. Fold in the dredged fruit, then add the brandy and vanilla, mixing thoroughly.

Bake and finish

  1. Line pans with buttered paper and pour the batter in.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 2.5 hours.

  3. Once cooled, remove from the pan and pour 1 pint of sherry over the cake.

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. Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Fig + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, beaten, lighten it for a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the heavy fruit and batter together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that gives the cake a tender texture and flavor.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the dense batter rises and lightens.
Brandy
Adds moisture and aroma while keeping the cake soft over time.

The step that matters

Folding in the dredged fruit. Flouring the fruit helps suspend it evenly instead of letting it sink to the bottom. Gentle folding keeps the batter from deflating, so the cake rises and bakes evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, raisin, fig, dates, chocolate, brandy, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, raisin, fig, dates, chocolate, brandy, sugar. 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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes