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Dessert

Rich Plum Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, flour, currants, sweetmeats, brandy, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rich Plum Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter until creamy.

  2. Add the sugar and stir until light.

  3. Mix in the allspice and cinnamon.

  4. Stir for 15 minutes, then add yolks of eggs one at a time.

  5. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them in gradually.

  6. Add the orange peel, lemon peel, citron, and currants mixed with sweet almonds.

  7. Fold in the sifted flour and brandy.

Bake

  1. Bake in a tin hoop at 400°F (200°C) for 3 hours.

  2. Place 12 sheets of paper underneath and 4-5 on top to prevent burning.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Currant + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,359 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  4. Almond + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together512 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Gives richness and a tender crumb as it is creamed with the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps trap air when creamed with the butter.
Eggs
Provide structure, and beaten whites add air that helps the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Currants
Add fruit flavour and a chewy texture throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and depth of flavour to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold air that lifts the batter. Folding gently and gradually keeps that air in, so the cake rises instead of turning dense.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, brandy, almond, egg, allspice):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, brandy, almond, egg, allspice. 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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